The mahogany corner chair on the left-hand side was ordered by John Brown from Rhode Island furniture maker John Goddard as part of the wedding furniture he and Sarah Smith acquired when they married. It was originally one of a pair. The cabriole, or curved, legs are typical of Goddard’s work, as are the ball-and-claw feet. Corner or roundabout chairs were used at desks or tables for reading, writing, or playing games. This chair is said to have been used by George Washington. While it is true that Washington visited the house on his 1790 tour of Rhode Island after the state ratified the U.S. Constitution, we’ll never know if he actually sat in this chair or its mate, now in a private collection.
In the center of the back wall stands a mahogany secretary desk. Fall-front desks like this were showpieces, often left open in order to display possessions and books from around the world. This piece is in the classic Rhode Island style of block-and-shell furniture, but with a few key features that make it one of a kind. This is the only known secretary desk to have nine shells, and each shell is carved directly into the wood, rather than applied as a separate piece.
The desk was made in the mid-to-late 1700s for Joseph Brown, one of the Brown brothers, a “gentleman architect” among his other interests. It is thought that Joseph may have had some influence in the design, which is very similar to the pediment of his home (built 1773-74) at 50 South Main Street.
The four surviving Brown brothers, Nicholas, Joseph, John, and Moses, each owned mahogany secretaries made by the leading Rhode Island cabinet makers of the time. John Brown’s desk now belongs to Yale University. Moses Brown’s desk unfortunately burned in a fire. Nicholas Brown’s desk is now in a private collection in Texas.
The tilt-top table to the right features a round top with a piecrust or scalloped edge. A single piece of mahogany makes up the top of the table, a beautiful example of the rich color and loose, wavy grain patterns that made this wood so valuable. The top swivels back and forth, allowing it to be displayed as a decorative piece when the table is not in use.
Tilt-top tables are an example of the increase in global trade during the 18th-century. Originally, the tilt-top table was a British design using decorative tea trays imported from China. Over the course of the 18th-century, as tea became more popular in Great Britain and the North American colonies, so did the tilt-top table. In the colonies prior to the Revolution, the tops of the tables were less likely to be Chinese imports, but no less decorative in their own way. Instead, American furniture makers used the table top to highlight other luxury trade goods, like mahogany.
While tea continued to gain popularity throughout the mid-18th century, it suffered a sharp decline in America around the 1770s with the passage of the Tea Act of 1773 and later the American Revolution. The tilt-top tea table was adapted and used into the 19th-century, and remains popular with collectors today.