Early Federal Inlaid Walnut, Mahogany, Yellow Pine, and Poplar Slant-lid Desk probably Morgan County, West Virginia, c. 1800 The top blind-dovetailed to two-board sides, canted to receive hinged walnut-veneered slant lid, which opens onto interior of string-inlaid drawers and pigeonholes flanking a fine solid mahogany prospect door inlaid with shaded fan and rosette motifs, all over a case of four graduated drawers enclosed with dustboard and vertical backboards, raised on short bracket feet, old surface, brasses likely original, 101cm wide, 53cm deep, 114cm high (40in wide, 21 1/4in deep, 45 3/4in high). Footnotes: Provenance Dr. Edward Mayo Tolman (1890-1965) of Concord, Massachusetts and Charleston, West Virginia. Stewart Latrobe Hunter (1883-1938), Bath, West Virginia. Henry Harrison Hunter (1840-1919), Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. An affidavit signed by Tolman, dated 23 August 1918, is affixed to the bottom of one interior drawer. It states that the desk once furnished an inn owned by the Hunter family, with the apocryphal claim that Thomas (1693-1781), Lord Fairfax, brought it to Berkeley Springs and then gave it to 'his next door neighbor' George Washington. Henry Hunter recalled that prior to the Civil War, the original lid broke off the desk and was used as a biscuit board on the back porch and, ultimately, for kindling. He purchased the desk after finding it in a local smokehouse 'with the drawers full of pieces of bacon, fat back, etc., and hams lying on the top.' Dr. Tolman purchased the desk from Henry's son Stewart on 3 August 1918. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing