Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: The Museum Year 2011
The Year
Acquisitions
Art of the Americas: July 2009–June 2011
Secretary
1841
Attributed to Thomas Day
Height x width: 90 x 45 x 23 in. (228.6 x 114.3 x 58.4 cm)
Mahogany veneer, mahogany, and maple; pine and poplar as secondary woods.
Classification: Furniture
Object Place: Milton, North Carolina
Accession number: 2010.946
Location: Lurie-Marks Gallery (Rural Arts)
Provenance/Ownership History: 1899, private collection, Lowryville, [Tennessee, see note]. 20th century, acquired on the Charleston, S.C. art market by a private collector; early 1990s, sold by this private collector to Derrick Beard, Washington, D.C.; November 20-21, sale (consigned by Beard), Neal Auction, New Orleands, lot 419, to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 15, 2010) NOTE: A pencil inscription inside the back of one drawer, written in what appears to be late nineteenth-century handwriting, reads "made Sept 29, 1841 / brought to Lowryville, Aug 24, 1899." The inscription noting the object's move to Lowryville might suggest that the secretary was owned by someone in Thomas Day's family. According to the consignor, Day's mother's family is said to have migrated west to Tennessee in the late nineteenth century.
The Heritage Fund for a Diverse Collection