Photo: Courtesy Diplomatic Reception Rooms, United States Department of State, 78.67
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Bureau table |
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Object numberRIF325 |
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MakerMaker Thomas Townsend, 17421827Maker formerly attributed Edmund Townsend, 1736/71811 |
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Dimensions33 x 36 1/4 x 20 3/8 in. (83.82 x 92.075 x 51.753 cm) |
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Dateprobably 1765 |
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Current locationDiplomatic Reception Rooms, Department of State |
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GeographyMade in Newport, Rhode Island(view a map of Rhode Island) |
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MediumMahogany (primary); chestnut, eastern red cedar, eastern white pine, yellow poplar, and poplar [possibly aspen] (secondary) |
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Marks"Thomas Townsend of Newport son of Job Townsend / deceased of Newport," in graphite, on underside of divider under proper-left upper drawer |
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InscriptionsIllegible graphite, on interior sides of top drawer; illegible name ["Mar....H...."], in graphite, on exterior proper-right side of proper-left upper drawer; 6, incised on exterior back of proper-left lower drawer; compass work designs [pin wheels and a heart], incised on exterior case bottom; illegible chalk, on exterior case bottom |
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StyleChippendale |
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ProvenanceBy descent in the Watts family, Newport, Rhode Island. Christie's, New York, October 21, 1978, lot 296; sold to the Diplomatic Reception Rooms, Department of State, Washington, D.C., 1978 |
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Associated namesWatts Family |
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NotesThe inscription on this bureau table suggests that it was made shortly after the death of Job Townsend in 1765. |
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BibliographyAmerican Antiques from Israel Sack Collection, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Highland House Publishers, 19571989), vol. 9, p. 161, ill."Christie's, New York, advertisement," Antiques 114, no. 3 (September 1978): 371, ill. Christie's, New York, Fine American Furniture and Decorations, sale cat. (October 21, 1978), 100101, lot 296. Michael Moses, Master Craftsmen of Newport: The Townsends and Goddards (Tenafly, N.J.: MMI Americana Press, 1984), 29899, fig. 7.23, 7.23ab. Clement E. Conger, Alexandra W. Rollins, and Mary Itsell, Treasures of State: Fine and Decorative Arts in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the U.S. Department of State (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1991), 134-35, no. 52, ill. Karla Klein Albertson, "Becoming a Nation: Americana From The Diplomatic Reception Rooms of The U.S. Department of State," Antiques and the Arts Weekly (January 9, 2004): 70, ill. Patricia E. Kane et al., Art and Industry in Early America: Rhode Island Furniture, 16501830, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2016), 284n4, 285287, 292, no. 53, fig. 13. Oscar P. Fitzgerald, American Furniture: 1650 to the Present (Lanham, Md.: The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc., 2018), 85, fig. 4.49. |