The upper section with shaped paneled doors enclosing a fitted interior, one door interior with brass plaque engraved, "Originally the Property/ of John Bartram/Owner of Bartram's Garden/The first botanist Garden/ in the United States/Founded 1728/on the Banks of the/ Schuylkill River, Philadelphia/Obtained From the/Phillips Collection," the lower section slant lid opens to drawers, pigeon holes and covered well.

Provenance

A proposed line of descent: John Bartram (1699-1777); to son John Bartram, Jr. (1743-1812); to his son James Howell Bartram (1783-1818); acquired by collector, John Smith Phillips (1800-1876); sold at John Smith Phillips' estate auction about 1877; acquired in the 1940's and thence by descent to present owners.

A Greenville, Delaware estate.

The provenance engraved on the brass plaque may refer to the collection of Philadelphia businessman, John Smith Phillips (1800-1876). Phillips amassed an important collection of Old Master drawings and prints now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The son of a successful China trade merchant, Phillips was an early member of the Academy of Natural Sciences and a founder of the Franklin Institute. A passionate Conchologist, Phillips bequeathed his extensive shell collection to the Academy of Natural Sciences. Dying without heir, it is believed that Phillips' household furnishings were sold at auction soon after his death. A niece of Phillips, Elizabeth Clifford Stevenson Easby (1838-1935), recorded that she bought a Phillips family tall case clock at an auction of her uncle's estate held at 203 S. Front St.

Note

Before the famous botanist's death, John Bartram (1699-1777) and his wife Ann Mendenhall (1703-1789) had removed to two rooms above the kitchen, allowing their newly married son, John Bartram, Jr. (1743-1812) and wife Elizah Howell (1751-1784) to live in the larger half of the Bartram house. Only the contents of the elder couple's two rooms above the kitchen were itemized in the estate inventory after the death of John Bartram, Sr., who bequeathed to Bartram, Jr., "all my plantation wheron we live.”

The Inventory of the Good and Chattles of John Bartram Jr decd taken by William Bartram and Isaac Bartram the fifteen day of Dec, 1812 lists "a Desk and Book Case" valued at 17 dollars. When John Bartram Jr.'s son James Howell Bartram (1783-1818) died six years later, "A walnut desk and bookcase" is itemized in An inventory and appraisement of the Goods and Chattles of James Howell Bartram (son of John Jr. and Elizah Howell Bartram) desc. of the township of Kingsessing taken the first day of May 1818.