Care to write a sermon? Or, the tale of the Reverend's Desk

With our computer and cell phone-dominated lives, it may be hard to imagine someone using a piece of furniture like the Reverend Richard Salter Storrs’ cherrywood desk-and-bookcase. An imposing piece of furniture at over 98” tall, Storrs was certainly making a statement of his importance as a minister and the serious business of writing sermons.

The top portion of the piece consists of shelves behind two “tombstone” carved doors.  The doors are decorated with a distinctive serpentine vine carving.  At the top are ball-shaped finials that were originally topped with elegant flame-shaped turnings.  The lower portion is essentially a fall-front desk, commonly known now as a slant-front desk. The four drawers below are block front-carved and finished with bright brass Chippendale drawer pulls. With the writing surface pulled down, you can admire the cubby-holes with decorative valences and a central door with matching pillar drawers.  An added plus is the secret drawer hidden behind the door disguised as a valence!

This vine-carved object was made by an as-yet unknown cabinetmaker. Only a handful of similar pieces are known—one in the collections of Historic Deerfield, a couple in private collections, and at least one of unknown whereabouts. Recently, a highboy with similar vine carving sold at auction. Tantalizingly, it had an almost-illegible inscription. It is likely to be the name of the owner (associated with the provenance that came with the piece), so it does not shed light on the maker.  However, given the ownership of the known pieces, it is likely that the maker was located in the Springfield, MA area.

Although this desk was certainly a very important statement piece to the Storrs family, it gradually was regarded as old-fashioned, and it was relegated to less prominent places in the Storrs home.  At some point it was moved, with disastrous consequences. Gone were the flame finials--lost or discarded, we don't know. We also think that one of the rear feet got broken, and their solution was to cut off the other 3!  Thus, the amputated piece was left, though it was eventually returned to a place of honor in the south parlor.

The desk was unique enough to warrant admiration and study over the years, including a guest appearance at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford for the quintessential exhibit, The Great River, in 1985.  Potential cabinetmakers have been proposed and rejected, though a Springfield/Northampton origin seemed likely. Philip Zea, former President & CEO and Chief Curator of Historic Deerfield, wrote this about the piece: "the desk-and-bookcase represents the best case furniture available in the Springfield area after the Revolution. The secretary boasts documented descent from its first owner, the Reverend Richard Salter Storrs (1763-1819) of Longmeadow in the very house where it was first owned. In fact, it is quite likely that the secretary is among the original furnishings of the Storrs House built in 1786. This level of documented use, through the generations, creates an unusual opportunity to interpret local craftsmanship and evolving taste over time."

The Longmeadow Historical Society has been fortunate to obtain Community Preservation Act funds for the restoration of this piece—work that has recently been completed.  Come see it in its place of honor in the Reverend’s parlor in all its glory.