Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library

Fall Front Desk with Masonic Symbols
1790-1810
Joseph Rawson (possibly)
USA: Rhode Island, Providence
Cherry, ivory, brass, metal, paint
overall: 44-1/8"h x 39"w x 20-1/2"d
Special Acquisitions Fund
84.81

Fall front desk; four long drawers with painted string decoration and inlaid ivory lozenge-shaped keyhole escutcheons, oval stamped brass drawer pull hardware; on the inside, two sets of three small drawers with niches beneath flank a door with a keyhole; front of door decorated with inlaid column topped with a globe incised with square and compasses; dovetail construction.

Former owners believed this desk may have originally been part of the furnishings of Harmony Lodge No. 9 of Pawtuxet, Rhode Island, founded in 1805. If it was, it may have been sold by lodge members in 1837, when, after several years of decline, members decided to close the lodge. A door inside the desk bears a Masonic symbol, a column made out of different kinds of inlaid wood topped by a globe inscribed with a square, compasses and the letter G. For further information, see Hamilton, John D., "Material Culture of American Freemasons," 1994, p. 63-65.