Skip to main content
Advanced Search
Conservation Status: After Treatment

Fall-front desk

1700–1730
Object PlacePossibly Warren, Rhode Island
Medium/TechniqueWalnut and walnut veneer, chestnut, white pine
DimensionsOverall: 167.6 x 101 x 47 cm (66 x 39 3/4 x 18 1/2 in.)
Credit LineHenry H. and Zoe Oliver Sherman Fund
Accession number2013.877
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsFurniture
Collections
ProvenanceBy 1738, James Child (b. 1708–d. 1737/8) and his wife Sarah Haile (about b. 1713–d. 1783), Swansea, MA [see note 1]; by descent to their son, John Child (b. 1732/3–d. 1819), Warren, RI, m. Rosabella Cole (b. 1739–d. 1820); by inheritance to their daughter Rosabella Child (b. 1778–d. 1855), Warren, m. Edward Gardner (b. 1770–d. 1824); by inheritance to their daughter, Mary Miller Gardner (b. 1816–d. 1888), Warren; by inheritance to her niece, Abby Child Gardner (b. 1831–d. 1902), m. Martin Luther Bradford (b. 1821–d. 1903), Boston; by inheritance to her daughter-in-law Cornelia Howland Myrick (b. 1866–d. 1955), m. George Gardner Bradford (b. 1863–d. 1952), Cambridge, MA [see note 2]; by inheritance to daughter, Hope Bradford (b. 1908–d. 1995), m. Frederick Prescott Bowden, Jr. (b. 1908–d. 1976); by inheritance to their son, Paul Converse Bowden (b. 1941), North Providence, RI; August 11, 2013, consigned by Bowden ("August Americana," sale 2669M), Skinner, Marlborough, MA, lot 38, to the MFA. (Accession date: September 25, 2013)

NOTES:
[1] The desk appears in the 23 February 1737/8 inventory of James Child in Swansea. It is not known when James acquired the desk, but it may have been commissioned around the time of his marriage in 1729 or perhaps it passed to him from his father John Child (1672–1738/9) of Swansea.
[2] A handwritten note by George Gardner Bradford, dated 16 December 1912, traces the descent of the desk from Mary Miller Gardner to his wife Cornelia Howland Myrick.