Shaker Deaconesses Desk

Enfield, Connecticut, circa 1840
Figured maple, white pine, original brass hinges, iron lock,
and bone escutcheon.
Height 32 inches, width 25 1⁄4 inches, depth 17 1⁄4 inches.

A masterpiece of Shaker design and craftsmanship, this is one of the finest known examples of its kind. Streamlined and elegant, it exhibits superb craftsmanship and boasts the ultimate provenance, from the collection of Edward Deming and Faith Andrews, who exhibited it at Hancock Shaker
Village in 1935, and in a great private collection since 1986, from whom we purchased it.

Provenance:
Collection of Edward D. Andrews (1894–1964) and Faith Andrews (1896–1990), Pittsfield, Massachusetts, by 1935; Private collection; “Shaker Auction,” Willis Henry Auctions, Inc., on site in Mt. Lebanon, New York, August 3, 1986, lot 157, catalog cover; Private collection.

Exhibited:
Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 1935.

Published:
Edward Deming Andrews and Faith Andrews, Religion in Wood: A Book of Shaker Furniture (Bloomington and London, 1966), p. 41.
Robert F. W. Meader, Illustrated Guide to Shaker Furniture (New York, 1972), p. 38, fig. 84.
Timothy D. Rieman and Jean M. Burks, The Complete Book of Shaker Furniture (New York, 1993), p. 187, fig. 124.
Lesley Herzberg, A Promising Venture: Shaker Photographs from the WPA (Clinton, New York, 2012), p. 185, no. 156, (V-94).