Gentleman’s secretary; 1793-1805; Salem, Massachusetts. Label of Edmund Johnson (working c. 1793-1811). “This piece is intended for a gentleman to write at, to keep his own accounts, and serves as a library. The style of finishing is neat, and sometimes approaching to elegance, being at times made of satinwood, with japanned ornaments.” So wrote Sheraton of a form similar to this one, but with different details, entitled “Gentleman’s Secretary,” illustrated as Plate 52 in his Drawing Book. For a long time s~ch pieces of furniture as this have been called Salem desks or Salem secretaries. A dozen or more examples are known. Three, including this secretary, all with the label of Edmund Johnson, display the same form and concept of ornament. One of these, owned by Mrs. Walter Wright in 1926 (illustrated in Luke Vincent Lock¬wood, Colonial Furnitu1′e in America, 3rd ed., 1926, Vol. I, p. 376, Fig. XLVI), appears identical to this one except for variations in the stringing. The other secGretary, in the Henry Ford Museum (illustrated in ANTIQUES, February 1958, p. 169), substitutes heavier ebony line stringing on the pilasters for the light full-blown bellfowers and intervening ebony dots and pointed ovals seen on this example.

The use of single-line stringing of light wood or, sometimes, of triple stringing (ebony or stained holly between two white lines) to form panels is a feature frequently found on Salem and North Shore cabinetwork. Occasionally, on furniture feet of that area, as on the piece shown here, the stringing lines run straight down to the floor. The eagle finial, which is like that on the Wright secretary, and the brasses appear to be original. The brass, spired, ball-shape finials are probably replacements, as are the old drawer pulls stamped with a classical figure with a ship in the background.

Dimensions: height 94 inches, width 66.25, depth 18,5 Materials: mahogany and mahogany veneer inlaid with light and dark woods over white pine; secondary wood, white pine.