Important Late 18th C. James Walter Folger Slant Top Desk Box

Important Late 18th Century Slant Top Desk Box from Home of James Walter Folger (1765 – 1849) at 8 Pleasant Street on Nantucket, a rustic pine desk top with shallow backsplash atop narrow shelf, over slanted writing surface, hinged to reveal fitted interior, above dove-tailed case having the front panel cut with triangular thumb hole; in old working green-grey paint. The bottom shows the corner posts cut off flush with rest of bottom: this may be the method of construction, or these may have originally been square legs making this a school house desk.

James Walter Folger was Nantucket’s ingenious inventor and statesman, relative and correspondent of Benjamin Franklin, the subject of William Gardner’s “The Clock That Talks and What It Tells.” This desk came directly out of Folger’s barn along with a hanging cabinet with profuse notations and calculations: the writing inside this desk is the same hand and is assumed to be by Folger himself.

The desk is as sturdy and strong as an iron box. The paint is very old, and obviously one of several coats.

Measures: 12-1/2 in High x 23-1/2 in Wide by 26 in Deep