Desk and bookcase

The business partnership of John Meads (1777-1859) and William Alvord (1766-1853) resulted in some of the most artistically sophisticated furniture made in nineteenth-century America. Meads & Alvord was the premier Neoclassical furniture firm in Albany, and they used their status and shop location to serve a wide clientele throughout the Hudson River Valley and further west along the Erie Canal (completed in 1825). As demonstrated in this desk and bookcase, when designing furniture, Meads & Alvord adopted popular Grecian and Gothic Revival designs that were characteristic of larger American style centers. The overall form of this desk and bookcase was often seen in New York City furniture, while the decoration, such as the carved melon feet, was popular in Boston cabinetwork.