Artist/Maker: Unknown
Created: 1770-1785
Origin/Purchase: Virginia
Materials: mahogany; yellow pine
Dimensions: 116.5 × 91.4 × 58.4 (45 7/8 × 36 × 23 in.)
Location: Monticello Visitor Center
Provenance: Thomas Jefferson; by descent to Thomas Jefferson Randolph; by descent to Hollins N. Randolph; by bequest to Mrs. Hollins N. Randolph; by purchase to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation in 1938
Accession Number: 1938-22
Historical Notes: One of the more interesting pieces of furniture owned by Jefferson is this tall, adaptable desk for reading or drawing. The angle of the top, hinged at the front, can be adjusted with a ratchet stand. A bail handle pulls forward the front of the desk to reveal a flat, lined writing surface. Supported by six legs, the desk has mostly replacement Chinese fretwork brackets beneath the skirt. The original—presumably brass—list to prevent books, papers, or writing implements from slipping is missing. The straight legs sit on casters.
The desk, whose angled top is large enough to accommodate a folio, is similar to a partially illegible description of one that Jefferson ordered from the Williamsburg cabinetmaker George Donald.[1] The dimensions specified by Jefferson, however, do not exactly match the existing desk.
-Text from Stein, Worlds, 252
ADDRESS:
931 Thomas Jefferson Parkway
Charlottesville, VA 22902
GENERAL INFORMATION:
(434) 984-9800