Slant Front Desk
Maker
Samuel Vaughn
Period1740 - 1770
MediumMaple, white pine, and tulip poplar
Dimensions42.5 × 39.63 × 21.75 in. (108 × 100.6 × 55.2 cm)
ClassificationsStorage Furniture
Credit LineBequest of Mrs. Maude Applegate Smith Moreau, 1964
Object number1991.553
DescriptionA hinged slant front panel opens and rests atop a pair of lopers which flank the shallow blind top drawer of this boldly figured curly maple desk. Three full-sized graduated drawers are below. All four drawer fronts are fitted with brass bails, large backplates and escutcheons, which are replacements. The original pulls may have been wooden knobs as there is a single hole beneath each of the current pulls. There are pairs of simple bracket feet at both front and back. The desk interior is arranged in a series of ten pigeonholes with simple scalloped valances atop five small drawers. Two vertical document drawers flank the center section of two document slots above a single small drawer. A sliding panel fitted into the interior desk surface slides back for access to the well behind the blind top drawer. The desk's pine interior is grain painted to resemble the figured maple case and drawer fronts.Curatorial RemarksThe workmanship of this desk reflects the modest level of skill on the part of its maker. That person could be Samuel Vaughn (d. 1750), a known carpenter/joiner in whose family the piece descended. It is quite crude in its construction. For example, the dovetails have extensive overcuts. Other rural characteristics include vertical document drawers lacking capitals and bases found on urban-made examples, rough saw marks on the side and back boards, grain painting of the interior to imitate the curly maple primary woods, and the possibility that the original pulls were wooden knobs. Samuel Vaughn's estate inventory lists a range woodworking tools adequate to make a piece of case furniture like this desk.NotesA hand written note pasted on the inside top drawer provides the following history of the desk. "This desk was purchased by Daniel Slack in 1837 at a sale on the 'Vaughn' farm some two miles West of the Perrineville Church. The occasion was immediately after the death of Sam'l Vaughn (buried at the Yellow Meeting House). Sam'l Vaughn had a sister "Mercy" who married Michael Mount. Their daughter Pamela [should read Parmelia] Ann married Thos. Ely. They had nine daughters among them Lavinia, who married E. T. R. Applegate, the grandparents of Mrs. W. Rhea Moreau. [signed] Thos. A. Smith." Samuel Vaughn (1750 - 1837) was born in what was then Upper Freehold Township, Monmouth County, a son of William Vaughn and his wife Mercy Mount. His grandfather, also named Samuel Vaughn, died in 1750. In addition to farming, an estate inventory for the elder Samuel indicates he was also a carpenter/joiner. His tools included thirteen planes, seven chisels, two files, two augers, a drawing knife, a hammer, three saws, two squares, a whetstone, a broad axe, an adze, etc.
Collections
ProvenanceSamuel Vaughn (1750 - 1837); to his sister Mercy Mount (1778 - 1861); to her daughter Pamela Ann Ely (1807 - 1885); to her daughter Lavinia Applegate (1842 - 1915); to her daughter Mary H. Smith (1866 - 1946); to her daughter Maude Applegate Smith Moreau (1890 - 1964).
