Desk Section of a Desk and Bookcase (c. 1780): Art, History and Details

Desk Section of a Desk and Bookcase (c. 1780) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

During the 1700s, a desk and bookcase, sometimes called a bureau in early inventories, was among the largest and most expensive pieces of furniture in a household. Their owners were chiefly businessmen and community leaders, and because of their function as repositories for personal letters and documents, they were usually placed downstairs in a back parlor or hall. A desk and bookcase consisted of two parts: usually a slant-top desk below and a cabinet above that sat within moldings applied to the desktop to hold it in place. The form often included elements derived from contemporary architecture. Like much New England furniture of the later 1700s, the lower section of this example is block-fronted, in which the profile recedes in the center and protrudes at either side. Though some European precedents can be found for block fronting, this type of cabinetry was clearly more popular in America than anywhere else.

Object facts

• Title: Desk Section of a Desk and Bookcase
• Date: c. 1780
• Culture: America, Massachusetts, Boston or vicinity
• Type: Furniture and woodwork
• Technique: mahogany and pine, brass hardware, gilding
• Dimensions: Overall: 241.9 x 106 x 56.5 cm (95 1/4 x 41 3/4 x 22 1/4 in.)
• Collection: Furniture
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1990.96.a

A detail from the museum

This desk is the lower section of a desk and bookcase. A desk and bookcase in the 1700s, often equipped with several locks and keys as in this example, served as a self-contained office for the gentleman of the household.

Collection credit

Bequest of Mrs. Lawrence Hitchcock

Further reading listed by the museum

• Adams, Henry. What's American about American art?: a gallery tour in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2008.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.