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Desk
1800-1830
Maker not marked
USA: Massachusetts (possibly)
Mahogany, brass
overall: 42-1/2"h x 38"w x 20"d
Loaned by the Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts
GL2004.4497

Desk with bracket feet. Five drawers, two are paired at the top followed by three full-length drawers. Each drawer has a pair of handles and a keyhole. Drop front hides ten slots, five drawers and a pair of columns that pull out. Metal rail around three sides of the top. A plaque on the front reads, "A Souvenir of / Henry Price / The founder of Masonry / in North America / 1733." Keyhole at top center of front.


This desk is associated with Henry Price's (1697-1780) family. Price formed the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts in 1733. An expensive home furnishing in its day, the desk speaks to Price's success in trade. Beyond his business dealings in Boston (where he started working as a tailor in the 1720s), Price owned an extensive farm in Townsend, Massachusetts, where he lived with his third wife and children starting in the 1760s.