Name/Title
Ledger CabinetEntry/Object ID
76.148Description
A ledger or document cabinet with double doors opening outwards. Burly heart pine. Inside are ten small drawers with brass knob handles. Many drawers are inscribed with (mostly illegible) words. Those legible include "Col. W. Anderson", "Elizabeth", and "Accounts".
Underneath the drawers are twenty square cubicles in double rows. Underneath these cubicles are seven upright slots for taller books or papers, and one horizontal shelf running about 2/3 of the width of the cabinet.
The cabinet rests on four restored feet. Handwritten notation of accounts, etc. on fronts of several drawers. Backs of drawers carved inside as follows: 11, V, IIII, I, II, III, VI, VIIII, X, and a second one marked IIII.Collection
Patrick & Dorothea Henry CollectionMade/Created
Date made
1770 - 1799Time Period
18th CenturyPlace
* Untyped Place
Virginia, USADimensions
Height
44 inWidth
39 inDepth
16-1/4 inProvenance
Notes
This burly heart pine ledger cabinet belonged to Patrick Henry. It would have held important documents such as letters, deeds, land grants, maps, account books, and possibly other large volumes such as law books.
The written provenance for this piece dates only to the mid-20th century. The cabinet was donated to the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation in 1975 by James Garrard of South Boston, Virginia. Mr. Garrard purchased the cabinet from Samuel Cleveland Mason (1885–1963), a resident of Brookneal who specialized in refinished furniture. Mr. Mason had purchased the cabinet as a Henry piece at a sale. Mr. Garrard could not remember the details of the sale, making the provenance of this piece difficult to uncover before it came into Mr. Mason's hands.
It is possible Mr. Mason purchased the cabinet in the 1940s or 1950s. According to Foundation Curator Edith Poindexter, several Henry family pieces came to market when the home at Seven Islands plantation was sold.
James Garrard donated the ledger cabinet to the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation in 1975.