Desk, Portable

Description

Rectangular lap desk of dovetailed butternut stained dark with Queen Anne-style brass handles on each end. Bottom has green baize adhered to it. Inside, compartmented tray of maple with tulip poplar bottom, with a pen tray which is removable, revealing a hidden under-compartment. At one end is a small drawer of butternut with a compartment below this. Brass hinges hold the cover together; strip of homespun linen glued over the opening slot to keep things from getting pinched between the halves. Writing lids of 9/32" pine stock with breadboard ends inset into both sections of the box, and covered with green-brown woolen homespun material, whip-stitched on the eges. The insert for the thinner section held in by brass tab screwed to the front. Oval bone escutcheon on the keyhole.

Notes

When acquired, the desk contained papers and other articles including a 1929 note by Br. William Perkins on chairs, which would indicate an origin of the Second Family, Mount Lebanon Shakers.