2-727-121 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Desk and Bookcase, c. 1780-95. In the 1700s, orders for furniture from the celebrated cabinetmakers of Newport, Rhode Island, came 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 Connecticut. The desk passed down through his family to the famous 20th-century interior decorator Dorothy Draper and ultimately to her daughter, Penelope Draper Buchanan, whose husband gave it to the museum after her death—a rare, unbroken line of succession. Large desks were designed to hold the necessary components of a gentleman's office, including books, pens, ink, and important documents. To serve such a function, they became complicated masterworks of the cabinetmaker's art, incorporating many parts—from small drawers to large panels cut from a single tree—making them among the most expensive types of furniture available. This desk and bookcase exhibits the characteristic traits of classic Newport furniture: "plum pudding" mahogany, cupcake-like finials, and a carved shell on the inside of the desk.