Wilmington, North Carolina, 1795-1805, a fine diminutive lady's desk, mahogany with yellow pine and poplar secondary, fall board opening to a fitted interior set with seven dovetailed drawers above an additional long drawer, separate frame fitted with two dovetailed drawers, on finely tapered legs, 38 x 22 x 15 in.

Provenance: found in Suffolk, Virginia; Collection of MESDA, deaccessioned July of 2014 into a Private North Carolina Collection; A North Carolina Private Collection

Note: This rare diminutive desk is one of only two examples of the form known from Wilmington, North Carolina. A nearly identical example with a history of descent in the Beatty family of Bladen County is also known and has been documented by MESDA. The example offered here is illustrated in Bivins, Wilmington Furniture 1720 to 1860, catalog number 25, as well as in Bivins, The furniture of North Coastal North Carolina, 1700 to 1820, page 411. It is additionally illustrated in Bivins and Alexander, The Regional Arts of the Early South, catalog number 47.