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Figure 1  A Plan of the Town of Newport in Rhode Island, surveyed by Charles Blaskowitz. Engraving, 1777. (Courtesy, Newport Historical Society.)

Figure 2  Chest of drawers, Newport, Rhode Island, 1760–1775. Mahogany with chestnut.
H. 34 1/2", W. 34", D. 17 3/4". (Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; M. and M. Karolik Collection of Eighteenth-Century American Arts.)

Figure 3  Bureau dressing table by Edmund Townsend, Newport, Rhode Island, 1765–1785. Mahogany with chestnut and yellow poplar. H. 33 5/8", W. 34 1/2", D. 18 7/8". (Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; M. and M. Karolik Collection of Eighteenth-Century American Arts.)

Figure 4  Desk-and-bookcase signed by Christopher Townsend, Newport, Rhode Island, 1730–1750. Mahogany. Dimensions not recorded. (Private collection; photo, Sotheby's.)

Figure 5  “Mahogany Cabinet-Topped Block-Front Scrutoir, Messrs. Brown & Ives, Bankers, Providence, U.S.A., Circa 1775.” From Edwin Foley, The Book of Decorative Furniture: Its Form, Colour, and History, 2 vols. (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1912), 2: plate 61. (Courtesy, Printed Book and Periodical Collection, Winterthur Museum Library.)

Figure 6  High chest of drawers, possibly by John Townsend and Benjamin Baker, Newport, Rhode Island, 1750–1765. Mahogany with chestnut. H. 86", W. 39 1/2", D. 21". (Courtesy, Newport Restoration Foundation.)

Figure 7  Bureau table attributed to John Townsend, Newport, Rhode Island, 1785–1790. Mahogany with yellow poplar, chestnut, and white pine. H. 34 1/4", W. 37 1/8", D. 20 7/8". (Courtesy, Yale University Art Gallery; Mabel Brady Garvan Collection.)

Figure 8  High chest of drawers by John Townsend, Newport, Rhode Island, 1759. Mahogany with chestnut, cottonwood, and white pine. H. 83 5/8", W. 40 1/4", D. 21". (Courtesy, Yale University Art Gallery; bequest of Doris M. Brixey.) Inscribed “No. 28 /Made By /John Townsend /Newport /1759.”

Figure 9  Commode, Montreal area of Quebec, 1780–1790. Butternut with white pine. H. 34 1/4", W. 47 1/4", D. 24 3/4". (Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; gift of Mrs. Dorothy Buhler in memory of Sarah M. Gilbert, gift of Estelle S. Frankfurter, and gift of John Gardner Green Estate, by exchange.)

Figure 10  Detail of the label on the bureau table illustrated in fig. 3.