Fine and Rare Shell-Carved and Figured Mahogany Slant Front Desk, made by Jonathan Swett, Newport, Rhode Island, Dated 1753

Inlaid ivory plaque inscribed Made by Ionathan Swett in Newport Rhode Island 1753

Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Varick Stout, New York

Ralph E. Carpenter, "Discoveries in Newport Furniture and Silver," The Magazine Antiques, July 1955, p. 47, fig. 8.;

Jeanne Vibert Sloane, "John Cahoone and the Newport Furniture Industry," Old-Time New England: New England Furniture, vol. 72. (Boston, MA: Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, 1987), p.102, fig. 3;

William C. Ketchum, Jr., American Cabinetmakers: Marked American Furniture, 1640-1940, (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1995), p.331.

Secondary wood is chestnut; corner patches to proper left side on upper corners of lower case drawers; foot-facings cracked and re-glued; proper right front foot with the bottom 5 inches replaced on both front and side foot facings; base molding with wear on bottom edge; hinges on prospect door possibly replaced but there is no evidence of other hinges; minor chips and losses throughout.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Little is known about Newport joiner Jonathan Swett (w.1753 – 1774) and his desk is the only known surviving piece by him. On December 18, 1752, he billed Newport mariner Robert Dunbar fifty pounds for a "beaufatt & case." Dunbar failed to pay this debt and was subsequently sued by Swett in November, 1755, at the Newport Court of Common Pleas.¹ 

Swett was a soldier alongside Abraham Shoemaker in the 40^th Regiment in 1763 and was "billeted at Silas Spencer of East Greenwich, by order of Justice Comstock from the 16^th day of February, 1763, to the 27^th day of July (Except some days they were absent)."²

Swett appears five times in the account book of Newport cabinetmaker John Cahoone between the years 1749 and 1760 and was one of several journeymen cabinetmakers to provide case furniture for Cahoone's apparently thriving business.³ As was typical for journeymen in this period, Swett was never wealthy enough to pay taxes or own property.⁴

Swett was still living in Newport in 1774 and is listed in the census as having a household with three males above sixteen years of age, one male under sixteen, three females above sixteen years of age, and one under sixteen.⁵ He may be the Jonathan Swett born in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, in 1720 to Benjamin Swett.⁶

It is interesting to note that the punch used for the letters and decoration for the Jonathan Swett inscription is identical to those found on backstaffs made by Benjamin King of Newport, Rhode Island.⁷

¹ Jonathan Swett v. Robert Dunbar. A copy of Dunbar's account with Swett presented as evidence in case 176 in November, 1755.  Newport County Court of Common Pleas vol. E, 176. Rhode Island Judicial Record Center, Pawtucket, R.I.

² Silas Spencer bill for 39 weeks billet, General Treasury Accounts Allowed, February 1764. Rhode Island State Archives, Providence, Rhode Island.

³ Margaretta M. Lovell, "Such Furniture as Will Be Most Profitable": The Business of Cabinetmaker in Eighteenth-Century Newport" Winterthur Portfolio 26, no. 1 (Spring 1991): 57.

⁴ Jeanne Vibert Sloane, "John Cahoone and the Newport Furniture Industry," Old Time New England 72 (1987): 95.

⁵ John R. Bartlett, comp., Census of the Inhabitants of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, 1774. (Providence, 1858. Reprinted with an index by E.E. Brownell.  Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1969), 31.

⁶ Dartmouth Vital Records to the Year 1850, 1:265.

⁷ Howard M. Chapin, "Davis Quadrants," The Magazine Antiques 12:5 (November 1927), 397-9 and Silvio A. Bendini, Early American Scientific Instruments and Their Makers, (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1964), 43-4.

This note was partially written by Benjamin W. Colman and Patricia E. Kane and obtained from the Rhode Island Furniture Archive at The Yale University Art Gallery at http://rifa.art.yale.edu.