The Holcombe Family Very Rare Child's Queen Anne Desk-on-Frame, probably Hartford area, Connecticut, circa 1750

Descended in the Holcombe family of Windsor, Connecticut;

Probable line of decent:

Reuben Holcombe (1725 or 1730-1797) Simsbury, Connecticut;

Phinehas Holcombe (1759-1833) West Granby, Connecticut;

Phinehas Holcombe Jr. (1783-1814), West Granby, Connecticut;

James Huggins Holcombe (1806-1889), Hartford, Connecticut;

John Marshall Holcombe (1848-1926), Hartford, Connecticut;

John Marshall Holcombe, Jr. (1889-1951), Farmington, Connecticut;

Marguerite "Gloria" Emily Holcombe Barlow (1921-2009), Farmington, Connecticut;

Sotheby's, New York, Important Americana, January 22, 2010, lot 531.

The collection is discussed in Johanna McBrien, “Downeast Destination,” Antiques & Fine Art, vol. 11, no. 3, Summer/Autumn 2011, pp. 126-34.

This is a very rare example of a child's desk-on-frame which is distinguished by its diminutive proportions, graceful shaped skirt and delicate cabriole legs. A nearly identical example in maple was sold on behalf of the Kaufman Americana Foundation at Sotheby's, Important Americana Silver, Porcelain, Prints, Folk Art and Furniture Auction, January 21, 2000, lot 619 for $93,250. That example was illustrated as "superior" in The New Fine Points of Furniture by Albert Sack. A very closely related chest-on-frame, currently in a private collection, descended in the Brace family of Hartford, Connecticut (see Remi Spriggs, "Living with antiques: An Americana collection in New Jersey" Magazine Antiques 167, no. 4, (April 2005), p. 104, pl. XVI). Another related desk-on-frame was offered at Bonhams, American Furniture and Decorative Arts, January 22, 2009, lot 1152.