拍品专文
A set of phoenix mounts identical to those on this desk are on a similar Newport slant-front desk made by an anonymous cabinetmaker and are illustrated in Ralph Carpenter, The Arts and Crafts of Newport Rhode Island, 1640-1820 (Newport, 1954), pp.74 detail, pp.206. Such phoenix mounts on lid supports may have inspired John Goddard as he incorporated carved swans into the lid supports of three desks that he made from 1750. These Goddard desks are illustrated in Michael Moses, Master Craftsmen of Newport: The Townsends and Goddards (New Jersey, 1984), pp.201, 202, 276, figs.4.1, 4.2, 7.5 and details of the birds are on pp.221 and 276, figs. 5.9c, 5.9d, 7.5b. While little is known about the maker of this desk, the International Genealogical Index has recorded a Benjamin Almy, son of John and Anstice Almy, born in Providence, Rhode Island on December 16, 1724.
Celia Thaxter (1835-1894), the celebrated writer, gardener, and former owner of this desk, is best known today for her work, An Island Garden (1894). In this classic volume, she described her garden on Appledore, one of the Isles of Shoals off the coast of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Thaxter's garden, distinguished for its informal and mono-chromatic arrangements has been preserved by many artists and writers who visited her shores; including the great American Impressionist painter Frederick Childe Hassam (1859-1935) whose magnificent watercolors of Appledore were reproduced alongside the text in the original version of An Island Garden.
Celia Thaxter (1835-1894), the celebrated writer, gardener, and former owner of this desk, is best known today for her work, An Island Garden (1894). In this classic volume, she described her garden on Appledore, one of the Isles of Shoals off the coast of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Thaxter's garden, distinguished for its informal and mono-chromatic arrangements has been preserved by many artists and writers who visited her shores; including the great American Impressionist painter Frederick Childe Hassam (1859-1935) whose magnificent watercolors of Appledore were reproduced alongside the text in the original version of An Island Garden.