Desk and bookcase

Column-like pilasters flanking the arch-paneled doors, massive scale, bold carving, and gleaming brass hardware combine to create an object that approaches architecture in its solidity and scale. As the exterior suggests the complexity of a building, the interior, with its drawers, shelves, and compartments, served as the organizational center for a powerful merchant. Bills, accounts, shipping receipts, orders, and inventories were easily organized in its shelves and niches, while private documents, maps, rolled charts, and books fit neatly into its lower drawers.

Colonel Joseph Sprague, the first owner of this desk, was among the richest and most powerful men of colonial Salem. An import-export businessman, stock owner, and investor, he must have made good use of this luxurious piece of architectural furniture in organizing his business affairs.