The link in the last post to the scriptor stamped Edwards Evans/1707 continues to revert back to the CWF opening Online search page. To view the scriptor page type in “escritoire” in the quick search box on the lower left and you will be directed to photos and a description of the scriptor. The uses of the terms “scriptor”, “escritoire”, and others to describe this form is a story for another post. I use the English term “scriptor” following the usage preferred by modern British furniture historians. Two points about the CWF’s description of the “Evans” scriptor. 1. During my examination of the scriptor, I found no white pine used. 2. The “Evans” scriptor is perhaps the earliest piece of Philadelphia furniture dated and marked with a name but there are at least two other objects attributed to the Delaware River Valley region with earlier dates in the form of inlay. A chest of drawers inlaid on the top with the initials” I (J) B” and the date “1706” and a wainscot side chair inlaid on the back with the initials “I (J) H” and the date either “1704” or possibly “1714”. I have not examined the side chair, there is disagreement among those who have as to which date was inlaid the originally.

Chest of drawers, probably Philadelphia, 1706.
Margaret Berwind Schiffer. “The Furniture and Makers of Chester County”. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1966

Chest of drawers, probably Philadelphia, 1706.
Margaret Berwind Schiffer. “The Furniture and Makers of Chester County”. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1966

Side chair, Delaware River Valley, 1704 or 1714.
Benno M. Forman. “American Seating Furniture 1630-1730”, W. W. Norton & Company, New York/London, 1988