Bears the signature of John Goddard (1723-1785), Newport, Rhode Island, 1750-1765 The reverse of the prospect door with ink inscription, Made by John Goddard Newport Rhode Isle. Restorations to feet. 42 in. high, 39 1/2 in. wide, 22 in. deep
St. Louis, Missouri, The Saint Louis Art Museum, Useful Beauty: Early American Decorative Arts from St. Louis Collections, June 19-August 15, 1999 (no. 29 in accompanying catalogue by David H. Conradsen).
Literature
Ralph E. Carpenter, Jr., The Arts and Crafts of Newport, Rhode Island 1640-1820 (Newport, 1954), p. 13 (referenced only). Michael Moses, Master Craftsmen of Newport: The Townsends and Goddards (Tenafly, NJ, 1984), pp. 195, 196, 201, 209, 212, 216, figs. 4.1, 5.1. Eleanor H. Gustafson, ed., "Collectors' notes, A Goddard desk," The Magazine Antiques (May 1984), pp. 1148-1149. William C. Ketchum, Jr., American Cabinetmakers: Marked American Furniture, 1640-1940 (New York, 1995), p. 137 (referenced only). Christie's New York, January 18-19, 2002, pp. 221-222, fig. 3.
Provenance
Reginald M. Lewis, Easton, Maryland Purchased from Joe Kindig & Son, York, Pennsylvania, 1982
Notes
This desk is one of only three forms, all slant-front desks, bearing the signature of John Goddard (1723-1785) and as such is a crucial and rare piece of evidence documenting the practices of the celebrated craftsman. Unlike his kinsman and fellow cabinetmaker, John Townsend (1733-1809), who frequently attached a printed label to his works, Goddard did not employ any consistent means of denoting his handiwork and of the three examples that bear his name, each appears to be executed or placed differently. The earliest of these three is a slant-front desk now in the collection of the Chipstone Foundation (fig. 1). Applied to the interior of the back of the top drawer, its hand-written label reads: Made by John Goddard of Newport on Rhoadisland in Newengland in the year of our Lord 1745. In contrast, the Nusrala Collection desk is marked on the reverse of the prospect door rather than in the top drawer. At first glance, it appears to be signed in ink directly on the wood, but the area around the inscription is lighter and slightly less oxidized. In all likelihood, the door originally bore a label and its ink transferred to the wood underneath before the label was lost. While the two labels were evidently of different sizes, the handwriting is virtually identical and closely conforms to other known examples of Goddard's signature (for example, see Morrison H. Heckscher, John Townsend Newport Cabinetmaker (New York, 2005), pp. 44, 46, figs. 32, 35; see also Eleanor H. Gustafson, ed., "Collectors' notes, A Goddard desk," The Magazine Antiques (May 1984), pp. 1148-1149; Oswaldo Rodriguez Roque, American Furniture at Chipstone (Madison, WI, 1984), pp. 56-57, cat. 26; Stanley Stone, "Documented Newport Furniture," The Magazine Antiques (February 1973), p. 319).
The third desk is also marked on the reverse of the prospect door, but it is incised directly into the wood rather than labeled or bearing evidence of a label. Reading John Goddard 1754, the incision is unusual and, perhaps of the technique, appears crude. Nevertheless, it relates to Goddard's handwriting style and, if not executed by Goddard himself, it is possible that like the Nusrala Collection desk, it was originally labeled and the ink seeped on to the wood; then, a later owner enhanced the faint evidence by incising over it (Michael Moses, Master Craftsmen of Newport: The Townsends and Goddards (Tenafly, NJ, 1984), pp. 202, 216, figs. 4.2, 5.1). Two other forms have been noted to bear an inscription of "John Goddard"; however, neither were signed by the cabinetmaker. The first, the Lisle desk-and-bookcase, was inscribed by Thomas Goddard at the time of its repair in 1813 and the second, a 1765-dated block-and-shell chest at the Metropolitan Museum of Art most likely refers to the Museum's example signed by John Townsend (see Literature: Carpenter, pp. 69-70, no. 43; Ketchum, p. 137).
While the Nusrala Collection desk is undated, stylistic evidence places it in the period between the two dated and signed desks, thus at about mid-century. The 1745 desk is the simplest form with three rather than four long drawers, a plainer interior lacking shell-carved embellishments, short, unadorned lopers and straight bracket feet. Though such a form could illustrate a contemporaneous and cheaper model, it was made when Goddard was twenty-one or -two and most likely represents one of his earliest works. The Nusrala Collection and the 1754 desks illustrate the evolution of Goddard's workmanship, which developed in conjunction with Newport's emerging Rococo aesthetic. Both have four long drawers, blocked and shell-carved interiors, full lopers headed by birds' heads and ogee bracket feet. Their primary difference is the execution of the shell carving. The shells on the Nusrala Collection desk are enclosed within a scooped, demilune surround, a feature that, seemingly more Queen Anne than Chippendale, may indicate an earlier date of production. However, such transitions rarely if ever correspond neatly to change in time, and the Nusrala Collection desk could very well date from the 1760s (for a kneehole bureau lacking the scooped surround dated to the 1740s as well as a desk-and-bookcase signed by Job Townsend with the surrounds and dated as late as 1765, see Luke Beckerdite, "The Early Furniture of Christopher and Job Townsend," American Furniture 2000, Luke Beckerdite, ed. (Milwaukee, WI, 2000), pp. 20, 25, fig. 35, 41).
John Goddard was one of--if not the--first cabinetmaker to receive iconic status in the field of American furniture scholarship. During the field's emergence in the early 20th century, Goddard was the individual most closely associated with Newport's block-and-shell furniture and despite numerous discoveries since, he, along with John Townsend, is considered one of the two principal cabinetmakers responsible for early America's most celebrated design (see Heckscher, p. 5; for more on Goddard, see Heckscher, pp. 43-47; Moses, pp. 195-200, 209-215).
