A consummate example of the Federal style, which flourished in the United States from about 1790 to 1820, the desk is a masterpiece of design and craftsmanship. The style takes its name from the period immediately following the Revolutionary War which saw the establishment of an independent, democratic American government. Federal pieces are characterized by simple geometric forms, legs that are usually straight rather than curved, fine veneers, and inlays on flat surfaces. This desk is exceptional because of the extraordinary quality of its details. For instance the gallery, which surrounds the piece’s top like a railing, includes a delicately crafted inlay of a bee, while the doors on the interior display beautifully executed images of roses in vases. More unusually, the pilasters adjacent to the doors were incised with the outlines of fanciful tulip trees in urns. Those shapes were then inked and stained to imitate inlays. The most remarkable element of the desk is its center niche. Marked by minute columns with gilt bronze Corinthian capitals, lined with mirrors, and ornamented with a rosette inlay, this may have been used to display a diminutive piece of sculpture.
The desk was owned by Henry Francis du Pont (1880-1969), one of the most renowned experts and collectors of early American furniture and decorative arts. He was especially famous as a specialist in Federal furniture. Much of du Pont’s collection is preserved in the family’s ancestral home, which is today the Winterthur Museum & Country Estate, in Winterthur, Delaware.
