image of object
From:" Israel Sack, Inc., advertisement," Antiques 111 (March 1977): inside cover
Click the image to enlarge

Slant-front desk

Object number

RIF100

Maker

Maker, attributed to John Townsend, American, 1732/33–1809

Dimensions

42 1/4 × 40 × 24 in. (107.315 × 101.6 × 60.96 cm) Writing level: 12 3/16 in. (31 cm)

Date

1785–1805

Current location

Private collection

Geography

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

Medium

Mahogany

Marks

Unknown

Inscriptions

Unknown

Provenance

Herbert Lawton (born 1868), Boston; consigned to The Anderson Galleries, New York, January 6–7, 1928. Mrs. Frederick J. Williamson, Montclair, New Jersey, by 1939; consigned to Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, October 6–7, 1939; sold to Israel Sack, Inc., New York; sold to Charles K. Davis (1889–1968), Fairfield, Connecticut, by 1940. Israel Sack, Inc., New York, 1976

Associated names

Mrs. Frederick J. Williamson
Israel Sack, Inc.
Herbert Lawton
Charles K. Davis
Israel Sack, Inc.

Construction

Three hinges fasten the slant-front to the desk interior. The lopers are half height.

Bibliography

Anderson Galleries, New York, Important American Furniture: Collected by the Well Known Connoisseur Mr. Herbert Lawton, sale cat. (January 6–7, 1928), 23, lot 84, ill.
Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, Early American and English XVIII Century Furniture, sale cat. (October 6–7, 1939), lot 184, ill.
"Antiques in Domestic Settings: The Home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles K. Davis," Antiques 39, no. 3 (March 1941): 128, ill.
American Antiques from Israel Sack Collection, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Highland House Publishers, 1957–1989), vol. 5, pp. 1314–15, no. P4364, ill.
"Israel Sack, Inc., advertisement," Antiques 111, no. 3 (March 1977): 408 inside cover, ill.