Prickett Desk 2011

financial record books normally used; letter copy books, daybooks, waste books, account books, and so on. The principal differences in the four secretaries reflect different requirements and choices by merchant owners for storing these various financial books in the bookcase section. On the present secretary, the first owner chose a simple arrange- ment with two central bays for books of two different heights, with two flanking banks of three small bays, probably for bundles of letters. The example in the Bybee collection has a lower row of small letter drawers, above that, a full-width series of equal-spaced compartments for tall account books, above that, a similar series of slightly shorter compart- ments. The Metropolitan Museum of Art bookcase interior is most similar to the present secretary, but substitutes fancy serpentine shaping on all the vertical dividers for the plain-faced dividers found here and two additional vertical dividers. The Mead Art Museum interior is similar also, but with fewer dividers than the Bybee Collection example. All four secretary interiors share a spectacular top section with a horizontal row of short vertical letter-holes, each divider with beautiful serpentine shaping of front edges. The specific pattern relates closely to the shaping of vertical dividers in the account-book section below with specific and recognizable features and quirks. Above this letter-hole tier is the crowning expression — a central applied bolection frieze block supporting a curvate plinth block with three pinwheel-whorled terminals, leading up to a distinctive large stylized scallop shell. The projecting shells are carved as a concave display in contrast to the convex shells on the lower skirt. Both front and rear surfaces of the lobes are shaped which gives them a marked sculptural quality. This central shell is flanked by a pair of masterfully carved semi-spherical fans of a pattern distinctive to the cabinetmaker. Here, each has radiating lobes terminating in crisply defined and rounded ends, the overall outer line describing a serrated arc of a circle. Lobe ends are further defined with a sharp but shallow gouge cut on all four examples, mirroring the lobe-end carving on the shells of the desk-interior drawers. The carving ranks as the highest quality and most precise of all Salem cabinetmakers of the period. 14