General during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 (1751-1829) who served as secretary of war under Thomas Jefferson. Henry Dearborn's beautifully grained walnut field desk with brass trim. The box desk measures 15.25″ x 9″ x 6″ closed, with a brass medallion plate at top center and equipped with brass handles on either side. It opens to a felt covered writing table with sliding brass locks, with four small compartments at top left with cover. On the left of this compartment is a pressure panel which conceals a spring, which when depressed releases two secret drawers housed in the interior of the top's large compartment which comprises one half of the box. These concealed drawers measure approximately 6.5″ x 1.5″ x .5″ (with loose bottoms); the middle compartment with cover measures approximately 6.5″ x 2″ x 1.5″; two small square compartments without covers measure 2″ x 2″ x 1.5″. The desk is accompanied by provenance including a Dearborn genealogical documentation entitled "Showing the ownership of the Box Desk of General Henry Dearborn," dated 1952 under the signature of Marguerite Hinckley Cohn, who states: "The Box Desk descended to Sarah Ellen Dearborn, who gave it to me in 1901, as a gift on my sixteenth birthday." Cohn was the great-granddaughter of General Dearborn. In very good to fine condition, with expected wear from use, a few minor abrasions and small cracks in the wood, and a few loose pieces.
