Pieces such as this desk and bookcase were multifunctional practical storage units used in the management of business and personal affairs. Most of the compartments on this desk have locks in order to safeguard the household possessions. The larger drawers of the desk held expensive linens and other textiles, while the small drawers on the interior of the desk section held everything from one’s personal papers, money, and jewelry to shoe buckles and snuff boxes. In a time when the modern idea of banks did not exist, a locking desk was the safest place for one’s valuables.
Date
Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.
Gift of the Antiquarian Society through the Mr. and Mrs. William Y. Hutchinson Fund
Reference Number
1985.517
IIIF Manifest
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David Stockwell Advertisement, Magazine Antiques 97 (Apr. 1970), 441.
Benno M. Forman, “The Chest of Drawers in America, 1635–1730: The Origins of the Joined Chest of Drawers,” Winterthur Portfolio 20, no. 1 (Spring 1985): 22.
David Stockwell Advertisement, The Winter Antiques Show: A Benefit for East Side House Settlement (New York: East Side House Settlement, 1985), 51 or 53 (ill.).
Annual Report of The Art Institute of Chicago, 1985–1986 (Art Institute of Chicago, 1986), 8, pl. 13 (ill.).
Milo M. Naeve, et al., A Decade of Decorative Arts: The Antiquarian Society of The Art Institute of Chicago, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1986), 44, 51, cat. 38 (iil.).
Lita Solis–Cohen, “Chicago Shows Off — Tastefully,” Maine Antiques Digest (December, 1988), 12B–15B (ill.).
Milo M. Naeve, Identifying American Furniture, 2nd ed. (American Association for State and Local History, 1989), 8, cat. 18 (ill.).
Stuart Klawans, “The Art Institute of Chicago at the Crossroads of America and the World,” Business Week 31, no. 80 (Oct. 1990), 81–118 (ill.).
Milo M. Naeve, Identifying American Furniture, Colonial to Contemporary, 2nd ed. (American Association for State and Local History/AltaMira Press, 1997), (ill.).
Judith A. Barter, et al., American Arts at The Art Institute of Chicago: From Colonial Times to World War I (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1998), 60–61, cat. 10.
David Stockwell, Wilmington, DE, by 1985; the Art Institute of Chicago, 1985.
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