Secretary

Date1910-1920

Mediumwood, marble, brass, gilding

DimensionsOverall: 42 1/2 × 28 5/8 × 14 3/4 in. (108 × 72.7 × 37.5 cm)

Credit LineReynolda Estate

CopyrightPublic Domain

Object number1922.2.146

DescriptionThe small lady’s secretary, with mahogany veneer and marquetry, has two doors on top that open to reveal a small cabinet, a leather-covered slide that pulls out with two small brass handles, and two doors below with brass screen that open to reveal a cabinet with one shelf in the middle. The matched four-part marquetry panels on the sides are outlined with black string inlay. The top of the secretary is made of Brèche d’Alep marble with a brass openwork gallery. The doors of the upper cabinet are made with false spines for books by Plato, Florian, and DeFetz. Gilt bronze mounts form the key escutcheons, and decorate the front cut corners of the cabinet and the toes of the elongated bracket feet.

Brèche (or Breccia in Italian) marbles are composed of fragments of rocks of several different colors, fused together under great geologic pressure. Brèche d’Alep is one of many varieties. It was frequently used for fireplace mantels and tops of cabinet furniture.

ProvenanceFrom 1964
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, acquired in 1964. [1]

Notes:
[1] In the early 1960s Charles H. Babcock (1899-1967) gave the house and its contents to the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation. The house was then incorporated as a museum and collection (Reynolda House, Inc.) on December 18, 1964 with the signing of the charter at its first board meeting. The museum first opened to the public in September 1965.

Status

On view