image of object
Photo: Courtesy Winterthur Museum and Country Estate, Del., 1957.0601
Click the image to enlarge

Lady's writing table and bookcase

Object number

RIF725

Maker

Maker Joseph Rawson and Son, active 1808–26

Dimensions

73 × 34 × 20 in. (185.42 × 86.36 × 50.8 cm)

Date

1810–20

Current location

Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library

Geography

Made in Providence, Rhode Island
(view a map of Rhode Island)

Medium

Mahogany with light wood inlay (primary); cherry (doors); white pine (backboards and top of lower unit); chestnut (drawer linings); sheet glass (bookcase doors)

Marks

"JOSEPH RAWSON & SON,/Cabinet and Chair Makers,/NEAR THE THEATRE . . . . .SUGAR LANE/PROVIDENCE,/Rhode Island" imprinted on paper label

Provenance

Colonel Seth Wheaton (1759–1827) and Mary Wheaton (1793–1871), Providence, Rhode Island; by descent to their son-in-law, Thomas Rivers (1791–1841), Providence, Rhode Island. Israel Sack, Boston, by 1929; consigned to American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, Inc., New York, November 7–9, 1929, lot 371. Henry F. du Pont (1880–1969), Winterthur, Delaware; given to Winterthur Museum, Delaware, 1957

Associated names

Colonel Seth Wheaton
Mary Wheaton
Thomas Rivers
Henry Francis du Pont

Construction

Finials, escutheons, and drawer pulls replaced

Bibliography

Charles F. Montgomery, American Furniture: The Federal Period, 1788–1825 (New York: Viking Press, 1966), 234–235, no. 191, ill.
Anderson Galleries and American Art Association, New York, American Antiques: Collection of Israel Sack, Boston, Mass., sale cat. (November 7–9, 1929), 130–131, lot 371, ill.
Eleanore Bradford Monahon, "The Rawson Family of Cabinetmakers in Providence, Rhode Island," Antiques 118, no. 1 (July 1980): 140, fig. 11.
Nancy Cooper, "Chats on Antiques," House Beautiful (July 1929): 70, fig. 2.