Desk and bookcase

This mahogany desk and bookcase represents the pinnacle of the Rococo style in Boston. When ornamenting their furniture, Boston craftsmen and their clients were often more reserved than their counterparts in New York and Philadelphia, but this piece defies that tendency. The shape of the piece itself is decorative with a swelled lower case, a design called "bombé." Standing on vigorously carved cabriole (curved) legs and claw-and-ball feet, this lower case contains four long drawers and a slant-front desk. The desk's interior compartments are composed of subtly shaped drawers and carved fans. Instead of solid wood, the doors are adorned with reflective mirrors set in carved and gilt scalloped borders. The doors are flanked by carved fluted pilasters topped by Ionic capitals. A brilliant gilt eagle perched above a broken scroll pediment and magnificently carved rosettes with delicate cascading tendrils represent a lavish level of ornamentation unparalleled in Boston furniture.This masterpiece is signed on one of its drawers by George Bright, a successful Boston cabinetmaker whom one customer described in 1787 as "the neatest workman in town." Despite his strong reputation during his lifetime, Bright's work was unknown until this signature was discovered by MFA curators in the early 1960s, several years after it came into the Museum's collection. The craftsman made the piece for Judge Samuel Barrett of Boston, who presented it to his daughter Ann upon her marriage to Dr. Isaac Green of Vermont. The Greens placed the desk and bookcase in the front parlor of their Vermont home in 1792, and it remained there until it was bequeathed to the MFA by a descendant in 1956. This text was adapted from Ward, et al., MFA Highlights: American Decorative Arts & Sculpture (Boston, 2006) available at www.mfashop.com/mfa-publications.html.

This imposing, bombé (swelled base) desk-and-bookcase represents the pinnacle of the Rococo style in Boston. From its massive, claw-and-ball feet to the eagle finial at the top, the piece is embellished with costly carving that represents a level of lavish ornamentation not ordinarily seen on Boston furniture. Bright, known as "the neatest workman in town," signed his masterpiece on one of its drawers. He made it for Boston's Judge Samuel Barrett as a wedding present to Barrett's daughter Ann.