Desk and Bookcase
c. 1780–95
Medium
"Plum pudding" mahogany, red cedar, chestnut, white pine, brass
Dimensions
{"overall":{"height":2.4,"width":1.08,"depth":0.648}}
Classification
Furniture and woodwork
Department
Decorative Art and Design
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Harvey Buchanan in memory of Penelope Draper Buchanan and Dorothy Tuckerman Draper
Accession Number
2012.43
Tags
About this artwork
In the 1700s, Newport, Rhode Island, was the fifth largest city in North America and one of the most important centers of shipping and trade along the Eastern Seaboard. Orders for furniture from its celebrated cabinetmakers came in from far and wide. This desk and bookcase was likely made for Oliver Wolcott Sr., a signer of the Declaration of Independence and later governor of the State of Connecticut. Eventually, the desk passed down through his family to Dorothy Draper, an important 20th-centu...