Tambour writing table and bookcase

Secretary and bookcase
Maker: John Aitken, 1797
Mahogany

Status

On view

Label Text

In March 1797, Washington disposed of the desk he had used throughout his presidency and bought this stately secretary-bookcase from Philadelphia cabinetmaker John Aitken for his Study at Mount Vernon. His choice, purchased for the princely sum of $145, would have fit well in a fashionable English household. The Cabinet-Makers' London Book of Prices (1793) illustrated a similar example along with a library bookcase featuring the identical muntin design in its glazed doors. The bookcase stored a few of the nearly 900 volumes in Washington's library, while the desk's tambour or roll-top lid enclosed small drawers and pigeonholes that held loose papers and desk accessories.

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Date1797

Maker John Aitken (American, active 1775 - 1800)

Geography Made - United States

Medium/TechniqueMahogany, mahogany veneer, light and dark wood inlays (primary), tulip poplar, yellow pine, oak (secondary)

DimensionsOverall: 95 1/2 in. x 38 1/8 in. x 28 in. (242.57 cm x 96.84 cm x 71.12 cm)

Credit LineAcquired through the generosity of Alice M. Longfellow, Vice Regent for Massachusetts, 1905

Object numberW-158

DescriptionTambour secretary and bookcase made in two sections. Upper section with overhanging, molded, string-inlaid cornice above glazed bookcase doors with veneered and string-inlaid mullions; two moveable shelves with string-inlaid front edges inside. Lower section with tambour desk lid opens to reveal a fitted prospect with six short drawers above three long drawers over nine pigeonholes with ogee-shaped valances and an adjustable writing slide supported by a ratchet mechanism. Bottom case with five crossbanded drawers, one long flanked by two short over two short, a central arch or kneehole, and four, square, tapered and string-inlaid legs with inlaid geometric shapes on the stiles and spade or therm feet. Elliptic-shaped ivory escutcheons on the bookcase doors, desk lid, and top central bottom case drawer. Two small brass pulls on desk lid, brass ring pulls on prospect drawers, and brass ring pulls with stamped backplates on bottom case drawers.

Alternate names for this form include: desk and bookcase, tambour secretary, tambour desk.

Published ReferencesChristine Meadows, "The Furniture." Antiques 135, no. 2 (February 1989): 488-89, pl. XIV.

Jonathan L. Fairbanks and Elizabeth Bidwell Bates, American Furniture: 1620 to the Present (New York: Richard Marek Publishers, 1981), 203.

Helen Maggs Fede, Washington Furniture at Mount Vernon (Mount Vernon, VA: 1966), 64, 66-67, fig. 54.

Marion Day Iverson, The American Chair, 1630-1890 (New York: Hastings House, 1957), 210, 214, 220, fig. 167.

Marian S. Carson, "Washington Furniture at Mount Vernon, II: The Study," American Collector 16, no. 6 (July 1947): 9-11, fig. 4.

William Macpherson Homor, Jr., The Blue Book of Philadelphia Furniture (Philadephia: 1935), 241, 268-69, pl. 378.

Benson Lossing, The Home of Washington (Hartford, CT: 1871), 228-9.

Benson Lossing, Mount Vernon and Its Associations, Historical, Biographical and Pictorial (New York: 1859), 214-15.

MarkingsOval plate stamped "24" attached to the proper right bottom drawer support. Doors incised "L" and "R" on their top edges.

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