Bureau

Attributed to Lawrence Thompson
Primary: Cherry with unidentified inlaid woods
Secondary: Tulip poplar
c. 1860
H: 41”, W: 43 ½”, D: 17”
Loughborough Trust Purchase
79.11

An unmolded two-board top rests above two small drawers and four slightly graduated drawers with all lap-jointed and cut nailed construction. The fronts of the smaller drawers are inlaid while the larger drawers have line spandrel/quarter from inlays. The mushroom drawer knobs are recent replacements.

The use of the deciduous tulip poplar as a cabinetmaking wood was highly favored by makers east of the Mississippi River where it grew widely and abundantly. However, in Arkansas its indigenous range was limited to a narrow chain of hills running southeast from Greene County, where this piece was made, down into Phillips County, and continuing on to their terminus in northeast Mississippi.

The maker, Lawrence Thompson (1799- c.1856) arrived in Arkansas c. 1821 and settled in what is now Greene country in 1833. Although the 1850 Census for Greene County lists him as farmer, there was a strong tradition of dual occupations among artisans in rural areas.