An Important renaissance revival american black walnut, fruitwood and parcel ebonised "combination" desk and chair, circa 1882 by Joseph Moore of Indianapolis, Indiana

the rectangular top with galleries and rectangular tablets above a molded leather inset slant writing surface over a conforming case with two molded burr walnut veneer panelled doors opening to reveal an arrangment of pull out cubbyholes and drawers, the hinged side opening to reveal an organized personal office within and a pull out writing surface and a slot for letters.

By repute John Pierpont Morgan

Czarina, Monte Carlo

Acquired from the above, 1996

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:

Deborah Cooper, Evolution of Wooton Patent Desk. A Place for Everything and Everything in its Place,  J. C. Showalter and J. Driesbach, Indianapolis and Oakland, the Indiana State Museum and the Oakland Museum, 1983, p. 50.

Betty Lawson Walters, The King of Desk: Wooton's patent secretary, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C., 1969, pp.13-4.

Crafted upon the conception and designs of  William Wooton's "Extra Grade" desk patented in 1874, this monumental cabinet desk patented in 1882 is indisputably a symbol of the period wealth, importance and prosperity as well as a tendancy for multi-purpose furniture and a penchant for organization.

Significant other owners of Joseph Moore cabinet desks were President Ulysses S. Grant, John D. Rockefeller, and Joseph Pulitzer.

Reputedly, the present lot was made for John P. Morgan, possibly one of only two such models.