Notes
With a height of nine feet and a width of over five feet, desk and bookcase NC-3 surely must count as one of the most gargantuan pieces of writing furniture ever devised in America. Whether impressed by the overwhelmingly institutional scale of his creation, the vast expenditure of timber in one piece of furniture, or the handsome price, we do not know, but for some reason the maker saw fit to sign the side of an interior drawer "Made by Jacob Sass- Charleston/Octr. 1794- pounds 25-- (two letters illegible)." Although this piece documents construction details used by Sass, and concurrently by his German peers in the cabinetmaking community, it is regrettable that the man didn't choose a more stylistically representative piece as the recipient of such a rare penned inscription. Also regrettable is the loss of the entire frieze and cornice assembly, which has been replaced; only the postitioning blocks for the frieze frame remain atop the bookcase, leaving us to wonder at the nature of the original cornice molding sequences and perhaps even the geometry of a pediment. The original presence of a scrolled pediment is likely, judging from the proportions of the desk and bookcase. The Sass desk and bookcase documents the user of the cove-and-torus bed molding as late as the early 1790s. No other pieces datable in that time frame retain this earlier style of bed molding, since virtually all Charleston case furniture had gone to cyma or occasionally coved bed molds by that time. For that mater, the form itself is somewhat outmoded for its tine, since secretaries largely supplanted the earlier slant-front desk in Charleston after the Revolution, judging from surviving furniture. Cabinetmakers continued to advertise both desks and bookcases as late as the 1790s, but some of these offerings unquestionably were imported work. The pattern of the huge feet on the Sass piece is much the same as the smaller feet of triple chest NC-2. With virtually identical feet is a secretary with bookcase recorded in the MESDA field research files (MRF Dib 186-17). Somewhat mirroring the shape of the feet is a large pendant in the center of the base (NC-3c), a detail far more delicately handled on a pre-Revolutionary chest of drawers (CC-46) which has triple stringing on its drawer fronts that match that surrounding the flush panels of the bookcase doors on NC-3. Another central pendant, also smaller in scale but following the same pattern as that of NC-3, occurs on a secretary bookcase (NC-8) that may well be the work of Jacob Sass. The interior of desk NC-3 reveals various salient details typically used by cabinetmakers in the German school, such as the tendency to place the pigeonholes below the interior drawers. The pigeonhole valencing, with a cyma flanked by a pair of ovolos, is a detail that the German group unfailingly adapted from standard Charleston desk interiors in the British style. The only exception to this are the arched valences of NC-1. Even more typical of desk interiors from the German school work of the 1770s is the squarish nature of the prospect, and the narrow width of the pilaster drawers, which here are missing. The entire prospect has much the same proportional relationships as that of desk and bookcases CC-42 and 44, both of which contrast with the narrow prospect door and wide pilaster drawers typical of the British style in the city. Also typical of the German school was the overwhelming urge to panel the entire back. Both the upper and lower cases of library bookcase CC-41 are paneled, as are both cases of NC-3. Viewing this construction on such a large piece makes it seem as if an entire range of paneling has been lifted from a room and installed in a piece of furniture. Due to the inevitable movement of timber in such a large piece, this construction was prudent, but workman within this school also used paneled backs on the lower cases of even normal-sized pieces. The large drawers of this piece have wide central muntins fitted to their bottoms. Contrasting with earlier practice, these muntins are nailed into an open mortise in the drawer front rather than fitted to a dovetail, and the back of the muntin is simply notched to fit over the drawer back rather than open
mortised into the back as colonial examples are.