Desk

Benjamin Burnham

1769 · Cherry, white pine, tulip poplar · The American Wing

Inscribed: “This Desk was maid in the / year 1769 Buy Benjn Burnham, / that sarvfed his time in Felledlfey [Philadelphia]” this is the best documented and most ambitious of all Connecticut desks. Oddly enough, there is no apparent Philadelphia influence. Rather, the desk borrows motifs from Massachusetts (the inlaid compass stars and blocked front) and New York (the claw-and-ball feet in front and bracket feet in back).

Artist

Benjamin Burnham

Date

1769

Medium

Cherry, white pine, tulip poplar

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

John Stewart Kennedy Fund, 1918