Carlyle Lynch tells of his Classic Furniture Projects From Carlyle Lynch, John Marshall's Desk - When I measure things, I spend hours, sometimes days, pouring over details. I take my flashlight and tape measure and poke and ponder everything I can...

... when I was poking and prodding around in the early 1950s... I was allowed the unusual courtesy of removing a piece of hardware. Underneath the Chippendale hardware - which was mounted upside down - was a faint outline of the original pull that I've shown on the measured drawing...

...the feet were replacements, too, probably done in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. The originals would most likely have been bracket feet.

If you pay careful attention, you'll note another oddity. The desk is 1/8 in. wider at the top than at the bottom. It's a detail that I wouldn't bother to try to reproduce - it may have occurred when something warped after the desk was built. Alterations and discrepancies are typical in a piece this old. I've come to enjoy them. Consider the Liberty Bell. What would it be without the crack?

When John Marshall died in Philadelphia on July 6, 1835, both the Liberty Bell and this desk were in one piece. The desk changed with time, but the Liberty Bell cracked that very day, as it pealed out, mourning Marshall's death.