An important block-front desk by Richard Walker of Boston

Magazine Antiques, March, 1995 by Philip D. Zimmerman, Frank M. Levy

Scholars have recently singled out an extraordinary group of case furniture made in Boston in the 1730's and later.(1) Predominantly desks-and-bookcases, they feature stylish and imaginative designs and motifs, exotic hardwoods, particularly fine cabinetry, and exceptional carving. Although some craftsmen's names can be associated with certain objects m the group, it is not yet fully understood how these objects are related to each otter and how they fit into the furniture-making traditions of eighteenth-century Boston.

A new and significant piece of this puzzle has just come to light in the form of a block-front desk (Pls. I, II) with a grand interior and the signature of its maker, Richard Walker, on the side of the right-hand document drawer. This example clarifies many relationships among these important objects while raising new questions. Nevertheless, the maker of several of these desks-and-bookcases can now be determined.

Richard Walker's identity and role in the colonial Boston furniture-making community is still incomplete, although research into public records(2) provides an emerging profile. In 1731 a Boston shipwright named Richard Walker sued Samuel Clark Jr., another shipwright. Walker's signature appears on two court documents and closely resembles the signature on the desk.(3) Because the shipwright trade was so closely related to cabinetmaking, especially while shipbuilding expanded rapidly in Boston during the early eighteenth century,(4) it is reasonable to assume teat this is the Richard Walker in question. Also in 1731 a Richard Walker married Eunice Breed, whose father, Timothy Breed of Lynn, Massachusetts, was also a shipwright.(5) Marriages teat paralleled trade relationships were common,(6) suggesting that this Walker might be the maker of the desk. However, a Richard Walker also married Rachel Carlisle (d. 1732) in 1743.(7) Their daughter, also named Rachel (1745-1813), became the second wife of Paul Revere (1735-1818) in 1773,(8) suggesting the possibility of another intriguing link within Boston's artisan community.

In 1739 Richard Walker, "Ship Carpenter," sought money owed him by the Boston cabinetmaker and shopkeeper William Hunt and by the Boston "gentlemen" Andrew Lane and Joseph Marion.(9) More significantly, in August 1740 Richard Walker, "joyner," sued Josiah Winslow, a Boston Laker, for not paying his bill of the previous year for a "twilite table" valued at thirteen shillings and a "black Walnut Desk" worth twelve pounds, ten shillings.(10) Walker is again called a "Joyner" on April 29, 1746, in a ease against Dr. John Perkins.(11) An eviction proceeding in 1750 indicates teat Walker owned property in Boston's North End, near the Breed family docks and Revere's house.(12) In 1760 Richard Walker, "Cabinet Maker," was taken to court for money owed to John Downe, a Boston merchant.(13) Revere's biographer Esther Forbes states that Rachel Walker's husband died in 1777,(14) which is consistent with the disappearance of any Richard Walker in the 1780 Taking Records.

If this outline of Walker's life is correct, his career conforms to a pattern evident throughout colonial American cities by which the rising status of capable craftsmen can be traced through their successive tides. In Philadelphia, for example, William Savery (1721/1722-1787) trained as a turner, called himself a "chair-maker," and was listed as a joiner in the 1783 Occupational Tax.(15) Similarly Benjamin Randolph (1721-1791) is identified in succession as a joiner, cabinetmaker, carver and gilder, merchant, and finally, gentleman.(16) Walker may not have achieved the elevated status of gentleman, but he distinguished himself by his legacy of furniture, which represents the pinnacle of Boston craftsmanship of the Queen Anne period.

The Walker desk is nearly identical to the desk section of the desk-and-bookcase in the Milwaukee Art Museum (Pl. III). In addition to many visual similarities, its construction parallels that of the Milwaukee example in several distinctive ways: mitered bracket feet are supported in part by horizontally stacked blocks; deep dust boards separate all the drawers; finely dovetailed drawer sides and backs are made of quarter-inch-click stock; the hollowed portion of the top drawer front is reinforced at the back with an extra piece of wood; the top drawer has not been shortened in width to accommodate lid supports, which are half the usual height and are molded into the frame of the case; and the lid is made of mitered battens.(17) Other refinements such as a slight upward taper of the blocking, parallel strings of inlay on the lid, and matching profiles of feet and moldings strongly relate these objects.

A particular feature of the construction of the Walker desk is that the front baseboard and quarter-round molding above it are cut from a single large block of wood, which is dished out from behind to form a rabbet for the pine bottom boards (see Fig. 2). Although the corresponding section of the Milwaukee desk appears identical, its quarter-round molding is a separate piece of wood, indicating a changed technique in the fabrication of these complex block fronts.(18) The seemingly labor-intensive technique used on the Walker desk also appears on a more modest scale in the construction of its shaped drawer fronts, which are rabbeted to receive the bottom boards. The construction of the baseboard was recently determined by measuring the height of the baseboard below the quarter-round molding (one inch) and comparing it to the inside height measurement of the same element (averaging seven-eighths of an inch). The difference in measurement (an eight of an inch) is accounted for by the handwork associated with chiseling out the rabbet. On the Milwaukee desk the two-part construction of quarter-round molding set on top of a board to create the inner rabbet resulted in even measurements.(19)