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DESKS 
papers. It is mainly desks of the second kind that 
we shall here consider. 
The desks found in the New England inventories, 
from those first noted in 1644 down to 1669, range 
in price from one up to twenty shillings, the average, 
carefully ascertained, being about six shillings. Most 
of the descriptive details relating to these desks that 
one is able to gather from the probate records are 
included in the following extracts - 
" 1 little desk, i s." " 1 desk, i s." - Inventory of
William Brewster, Plymouth, 1644. 
" In the great Chamber, His Deske, LI."- Inven- 
tory of William Clark, Salem, 1647. 
"i desck box, 3 s." -Inventory of Robert Day, 
Hartford, 1648. 
" In the Study, i Greene desk for a woman, 6 s." 
-Inventory of Major-General Edward Gibbons, Bos- 
ton, 1654. 
"i covered deske, io s." " For the deske & Stand- 
ish, 14 S."- Inventory of Nathaniel Souther, notary, 
Boston, 1655. 
"In the ball, A standing deske standish & Box, 
4I 5 s." - Inventory of John Brackett, merchant, 
Boston, 1666-67. 
These early pieces no doubt differed from each 
other in shape and size to a considerable extent. 
The greater number, however, were probably boxes, 
either plain or carved, with sloping lids, and, not hay-