Bookcase
- Object Name:
- Bookcase
- Object ID:
- 1970.014.06
- Creator:
- Long, Issac (1764-1840)
- Place of Origin:
- Hopkinton, NH
- Date:
- circa 1797
- Description:
- Bookcase. The upper section of a desk and bookcase, which has been set into a modern base with tall straight bracket feet and beveled upper edges. Bookcase has flat top, ogee-molded cornice, and two doors, opening outward. Each door has two panels and is framed on the case, except at bottom, with beads. Panels are elaborately shaped, those at top being arched on upper edge, with incurved bottoms and ogee-curved sides. Lower panels are rectangular with incurved lower edges. A brass knob on each door. Bookcase interior has four fixed full-width shelves with central fixed vertical partitions and a half-width shelf at bottom of left side. Top and base pine; remainder of primary wood maple, some of "curly" grain; all stained dark. Steel lock on each door. Interior varnished. Chalk inscription on outer surface of lower backboard; "made By I. Long / Joseph Joseph Towne / [ ] & [ ] / 1797." Typed label on inner surface of backboards at upper left corner: "Bought at the John P. George auction in Concord N.H. in May 1926; was called the 'top of a Governor Winthrop desk [ . ],' Marked in chalk on the back 'made by I. Long ?? Hopkinton' To go to the New Hampshire Historical Society.". Handwritten shipping tag tied to left door handle: "Bookcase was top of desk from John George Farm Hopkinton N. H." Compass-produced designs on backboards, probably executed for practice. Locks attached with what seem to be hand-wrought nails.
- Material:
- Wood
Maple
Pine
Brass - Dimensions:
- H-54.25 W-36 D-13.875 inches
- Provenance:
- "I. Long," the maker, was almost certainly Isaac Long (1764-1840) of Hopkinton, NH, joiner. Joseph Towne (1758-1819) was a leading Hopkinton merchant and apparently the original owner.
In the 1890 history of Hopkinton, Towne was said to have "built the house now owned by Mrs. Caroline L. George" in Contoocook. Mrs. George later bequeathed the house to her nephew John P. George of Concord and it was at the latter's estate auction that the bookcase was purchase by Miss Jewell. - Credit Line:
- Bequest of Margaret H. Jewell
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