Desk
Maker
R.J. Horner & Company
(American, 1886 - 1915)
Date1895-1910
MediumBird's-eye maple, elm, basswood, birch, brass
DimensionsOverall: 41 1/4 × 32 × 18 1/8in. (104.8 × 81.3 × 46cm)
ClassificationsFURNISHINGS
Credit LineProctor Collection
Terms
Object numberPC. 596.1
DescriptionSlant-top desk with gallery on top. Cabriole legs, applied scroll carving. Label on back. Keyhole escutcheon.On View
Not on viewCollections
Copyright<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/4.0/80x15.png" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License</a>.
Label TextThis fall-front desk with a graceful arch and analogous applied scroll decoration and cabriole legs is an interpretation of mid-eighteenth-century, French, rococo prototypes. At the end of the nineteenth century, the period when this desk was made, wealthy Americans collected antique furniture or purchased modern adaptations. In creating these pieces in maple, a wood not associated with eighteenth-century French furniture, R. J. Horner & Company demonstrated its awareness of the current taste for antique French furniture but made no serious attempt to make an exact reproduction. Most American consumers wanted new furniture that provided the appearance of furniture from an earlier period, not line-for-line duplications.
ATD
Paper label on back.
