Note Type
In-House NoteNote
Notes: Offered and sold via private sale by the heirs of Amarinthia Lowndes Webb Henderson for $120,000. Historic Charleston Foundation collection purchase with funds donated by Mr. and Mrs. James P. Barrow.
Made by one of Charleston's German artisans during the Federal period, it is quite a rare form. Hidden behind double faux fronts is a fully-outfitted dressing drawer adjacent to a diminutive secretary drawer. (See figures 1, 2, and 3). Within the upper case are five linen drawers, and in the center of the original pediment is an arched center tablet showing a stylized inlaid heart flanked by inlaid oval floral paterae. The combination of a dressing and secretary drawer along as well as the use of a decorative heart inlay is quite unusual and another Charleston comparison is unknown.
In the early nineteenth century, such a linen press would have been placed in the bedchamber, and expensive textiles-from household linens to garments-would have been placed under lock and key within the press. This particular example helps illuminate the types of furnishings that would have been displayed in such a room, but it also tells the story of what people actually did in their bedchambers. It was a multifunctional space, that was not as private as we know it to be today, and ladies and gentlemen of the household, often in a state of semi-repose or dress, would greet intimate associates while using their toilet or being coiffed for the day in addition to performing household management tasks, such as providing directives to enslaved servants or writing correspondence. Hence, this linen press with secretary and dressing drawers is the ultimate expression of utilitarianism and craftsmanship.