Chippendale Mahogany Reverse Serpentine Slant-Front Desk, attributed to William King, Salem, Massachusetts, circa 1775, the oblong thumb-molded lid opens over lopers to create a writing surface and to disclose a stepped arrangement of six drawers centering an arcade of six pigeonholes; the generously proportioned case is fitted with four graduated long drawers of ‘ox bow’ profile above a molded base supported on gadrooned ogee bracket feet centering a shell-carved pendant.
Height 43 in. Width 41 in. Depth 25 in.

Woods: Mahogany, white pine secondary

Hardware: The brasses and escutcheons have been replaced. In the interior the small drawers once had drop loop handles but these have been replaced with knop pulls.

Surface: Retains an old 19th century surface.

Restoration: The lid is lipped along the top and sides and the hinges are patched where broken out. Small amount of cockbeading replaced. Drawer runners have been flipped but appear to be original. Lower left front foot facing old repair. Left rear glue block missing.

Provenance:
Wayne Pratt, Woodbury, Connecticut;
Garth’s Auction Company, Delaware, Ohio, The Estate of George C. Samaha, October 9, 1971;
George C. Samaha, Milan, Ohio

Notes: Born February 24, 1754, William King married Rebecca Phippen, the daughter of Salem Deacon Nathaniel Phippen, and first advertised July 21, 1789 in the Salem Mercury. From surviving accounts, he appears to have been quite a character. Soon after 1789, he stole a horse and buggy with the intention of deserting his family but was apprehended in New Haven. In 1793, he abandoned his family again. The diary of the Reverend William Bentley, dated July 3, 1796, notes: News from Philadelphia that William King belonging to a good family in this Town after having dragged his family from Town to Town, left a note that he was going to drown himself and disappeared. It is supposed that he means to ramble unencumbered. The family are to return to Salem. King reappeared again in Hanover, New Hampshire when he advertised in 1806. He is not known to have returned to Salem. (Ethel Hall Bjerkoe, The Cabinetmakers of America, Garden City, New York, 1957, p. 138).

Three known pieces are known to survive that bear his name: a serpentine-fronted chest of drawers with his paper label sold at Christie’s New York, January 24, 2014, lot 135; an oval-top mahogany candlestand with pad feet branded “W. King” on the underside of the urn pedestal, sold by Sotheby’s, New York, November 18-20, 1976, lot 960 and illustrated in Israel Sack, American Antiques from Israel Sack Collection, vol. II, no. 744; and a demilune card table with fluted straight legs and bearing what appears to be a label identical to that on the previously mentioned chest sold at Skinner, Inc., Bolton, August 12, 2000, lot 131. A chest-of-drawers in the collection of the Peabody Essex Museum that features a gadrooned base is attributed to King (Decorative Arts Photographic Collection (DAPC), Winterthur Library, no. 65.4151).
Source: Christie’s New York

Literature: For discussions of similar case pieces attributed to William King see articles in Antiques Magazine, September 1927 and November 1944.