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Butler's desk and bookcase

Object number

RIF2803

Maker

Maker, formerly attributed to Joseph Rawson, Sr., 1760–1835
Maker, possibly by James Halyburton, active 1790 to at least 1823

Dimensions

Height: 107 in. (271.781 cm) Width: 46 in. (116.84 cm)

Date

1800–1810

Current location

Stanley Weiss Collection

Geography

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

Medium

Mahogany (primary); mahogany (corner blocks in pediment); cherry (back boards of bookcase, top and bottom of bookcase); and pine (all other secondary wood)

Marks

None

Inscriptions

"This bookcase, once used by Chief Justice Tristram Burgess, was bought from the Burgess heirs by Chief Justice Charles S. Bradley and after his death was bought by C. L. Pendleton, who sold it to R. G. Hazard, in March, 1901," engraved, on brass plaque affixed to interior of prospect door; "1 X," in graphite, on interior back of proper right long interior drawer; "2 X," in graphite, on interior back of proper left long interior drawer; "1X" through "7X," in graphite, on smaller interior drawers, including prospect drawers, from bottom to top, from left to right; "X3," in graphite, on proper right exterior side of drawer marked "3"; "7," in graphite on proper right exterior side of drawer marked "7"; later numbers on some drawers

Provenance

Chief Justice Tristram Burgess (1770–1853), Providence, Rhode Island; sold by his heirs to Chief Justice Charles S. Bradley (1819–1888), Providence, Rhode Island; sold by his estate to Charles L. Pendleton (1846–1904), Providence, Rhode Island; sold to Rowland Gibson Hazard (born 1829), Newport, Rhode Island, 1901. R. T. Trump and Co., Inc., Philadelphia, 1972. Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc., New York, April 30, May 1, 1976, lot 490. Pook and Pook, Downingtown, Pennsylvania, April 16, 2011, lot 305; sold to Stanley Weiss, Providence, Rhode Island

Associated names

Chief Justice Charles S. Bradley
Charles L. Pendleton
Rowland Gibson Hazard
Unknown
Sotheby Parke Bernet
Tristram Burgess
Pook and Pook, Inc.
R. T. Trump and Co., Inc.

See also

Bibliography

Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, Fine Americana, sale cat. (April 31–May 1, 1976), lot 490, ill.
Wendy A. Cooper and Tara L. Gleason, "A Different Rhode Island Block-and-Shell Story: Providence Provenances and Pitch-Pediments," American Furniture (1999): 179, fig. 15.
"Lot 305, The Chief Justice Tristram Burgess Rhode Island Chippendale mahogany secretary desk, ca. 1795," http://www.pookandpook.com/cat/2011-04-16/305 (accessed April 6, 2011), lot 305.
Lita Solis-Cohen, "A Decorated Seed Chest, a Rare Carpet, and the Easter Bunny," Maine Antique Digest (June 2011): 8–B.
"R. T. Trump and Co., Inc., advertisement," Antiques 101, no. 5 (May 1972): 785.
"R. T. Trump and Co., Inc., advertisement," Antiques 101, no. 5 (May 1972): 785.
Patricia E. Kane et al., Art and Industry in Early America: Rhode Island Furniture, 1650–1830, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2016), 322n2.
Stanley Weiss and Brock Jobe, Fine American Antiques in the Stanley Weiss Collection (Providence, R.I.: Stanley Weiss Collection, 2019), 4, sw01518, ill.