Desk (Sewing table)

Description

A cabinet-making Brother in the Enfield, New Hampshire Shaker community made this butternut sewing desk around 1840. This red-stained desk features an extendable work surface and two banks of drawers, one on the front and one on the side, allowing two workers to use the table simultaneously. A shallow “pattern drawer” pulls out from beneath the case. Each of the desk's tapered legs has a small ring at the top, a design detail characteristic of Enfield Shaker furniture.