With our highest compliments and utmost honors, Bay Colony Antiques is
extremely proud to offer for sale this fantastic 18th century antique
Chippendale Mahogany Boston oxbow desk. This is one of the absolute finest
oxbow desks we’ve had the pleasure of offering lately and are sure this will
excite our collectors across the globe. This is a superior formed desk with a
magnificently executed serpentine or oxbow front. This oxbow form was mainly
used in Boston at the end of the 18th century and we’ve attached a few photos
of similar desks in public collections across the country. The desk to the
right of our example is purportedly made by John Austin of Boston MA and is
currently in the Winterthur collection. Note the almost identical proportions
of the swell fronts with a clean pronounced edge & dramatic center depression.
The case is formed in the same manner with the upper drawer inset between the
lopers. Obviously the legs are very different ,but it would not be uncommon for
the legs to have been crafted by an independent carver. The desk pictured below
ours is in the MFA in Boston and features the exact opposite curves of the one
being offered here. This is commonly referred to as a reverse serpentine and
was also practiced in Boston in the 18th century. The desk at the MFA is fitted
with ziggurat formed brasses nearly identical to the ones on this desk being
offered for sale here. These were imported from England and we’ve attached a
picture from an 18th century trade catalog that covered everything from brass
bells to hinges & pulls. These would have been a costly set of brasses and are
really only found on top tier cabinet work. In our close up photo of the pulls
you can see small imperfections from the primitive casting process in which
these were made.

The lid opens to reveal 6 interior drawers with two standard drawers above one
long drawer on each side. The desk has a total of 8 pigeon holes with a
tombstone carved center door. The center door has two smaller drawers inside
and one hidden drawer above concealed in the scrolling. There’s a repair to the
wood surrounding the right hinge of the lid but it’s easy to glance over and
understandable after roughly 250 years. The lower case has four drawers with
lock in the top two and the bottom two drawers never accepted locks. The third
drawer has a compartmentalized interior that splits the drawer down the middle
and into 5 smaller sections on the right side. The ball and claw feet are well
executed but are not an overly ambitious design. The base molding mirrors the
curves of the case and it is thumb molded achieving a flawless transition & a
clean aesthetic.

We are always looking for cabinet maker’s signatures & pencil script or
anything that can help us attribute a certain area or maker. We thoroughly
enjoy furthering the study of early American furniture and placing American
treasures in the finest American homes. It’s not by any means common, but slant
lid desks like this sometimes have hidden compartments so we try to give
everything as thorough of an inspection as possible. We’ve found some hidden
compartments behind the lopers in the past so we always try to remove them and
take a peek inside if possible. The left loper has old graphite script that is
hard to make out but reads “Bonaparte Jerome Guillaume ________ (a Bruel?)
There is some other old script that that is present on the same drawer and the
bottom panel of another and the Bruel name is repeated on the side of another
drawer. The desk was crafted CA 1770/1780 which would predate Napoleon’s
brother Jerome’s arrival to the US but interestingly enough his son of the same
name was involved In Massachusetts while studying at Harvard ~1820. He
eventually married Susan May Williams who came from a very wealthy Rockport, MA
family so the desk may have been inherited by him that way. Jerome had two sons
with his oldest serving in the American & French armies. His eldest son was
also named Jerome Bonaparte and he spent a good amount of time in Massachusetts
including his final years until he passed away in Prides Crossing on the North
Shore. Napoleon’s brother Jerome did spend some time in Boston but mainly just
during his wedding tour with his new bride. We don’t believe the desk would
have belonged to him because he would have been accustomed to the finest French
furniture and the signatures don’t match up. We couldn’t access the letters
between his son, the American Jerome Bonaparte, and general Robert E Lee. The
letters now belong to the University of Maryland but we’d be interested to
learn if this could be of his hand if anybody has access to them. We’d love to
divert more time to this just to satisfy our own curiosity but we’re completely
backed up with new inventory and have spent far too much time already learning
the fascinating story of the American Bonapartes. The desk measures 43 1/2”
wide x 23” deep x 42” tall. The writing surface measures 39 1/2” wide x 23”
deep.