The Potts Family Chippendale Carved and Highly Figured Mahogany Scroll-Top Desk and Bookcase with Bust of John Locke, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Circa 1770

Acquired from a member of the Potts Family and originally thought to have come from their family residence, Pottsgrove, Pennsylvania;

Joe Kindig, Jr., York, Pennsylvania, March 26, 1936;

Sotheby's New York, The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Lammot Du Pont Copeland, January 19, 2002, Sale 7757, lot 262.

Morrison H. Heckscher, "Living with Antiques: Mount Cuba in Delaware," The Magazine Antiques, May 1987, pl. V, p. 1081;

"Living with Antiques: The Delaware Home of Mr. and Mrs. Lammot Copeland," The Magazine Antiques, October 1952, p. 293;

Robert C. Smith, "Finial Busts on Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia Furniture," The Magazine Antiques, December 1971, fig. 8, p. 903.

This desk-and-bookcase is a masterpiece of Philadelphia Chippendale case furniture, surviving with its original portrait bust of the English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704), a popular figure in Philadelphia whose works dominated a "parcel of books'' sent out from London in 1700 by order of William Penn. His popularity continued in the period just before the Revolution because it was believed that, if he were alive, he would have sympathized with the American grievances against the British government (Robert C. Smith, "Finial Busts on Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia Furniture," The Magazine Antiques, December 1971, p. 903). The portrait bust is one of fewer than a dozen known on Philadelphia furniture. Characterized by a long, narrow head, appropriately-scaled eyes, and a long commanding nose, this portrait bust appears to be by the same hand as the bust of John Milton on a desk-and-bookcase illustrated as fig. 10 in Smith's article.

This desk-and-bookcase was made for the Potts family of Pottstown, Pennsylvania and was believed to have been among the furnishings at the family home, Pottsgrove. Morrison Heckscher notes in "Living with Antiques: Mount Cuba in Delaware," in The Magazine Antiques (May 1987), that this desk was made by the same craftsman who created the Fisher family chest-on-chest at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (see Heckscher, American Furniture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985, no. 147, p. 226-8). Other case pieces by this unidentified craftsman include a similar desk-and-bookcase with a bust of John Locke illustrated in William M. Hornor, Blue Book Philadelphia Furniture, 1977, pl. 171, a chest-on-chest once owned by Stephen Girard, another with a history of descent from Vincent Loockerman (d. 1785) of Dover, Delaware, a desk-and-bookcase made for Joseph Wharton illustrated in pl. 201 of Hornor, and a high chest at Bayou Bend also made for Jospeh Wharton (see David Warren et. al., American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection, 1998, F143). Heckscher has hypothesized that the craftsmen of these exceptional case pieces may be the cabinetmaker Thomas Affleck and the carver James Reynolds, two men known to have worked together in 1772 for William Logan, who originally commisioned the Fisher family chest-on-chest.