1. Job Townsend, Jr., Ledger/Daybook, 1750–1793, Newport Historical Society, Newport, Rhode Island, vol. 504. Although the handwriting of father and son is very similar, distinctions between certain capitalized letters, notably “A” and “M,” determine its author’s hand. Michael Moses has contended that the ledger from 1750 to 1760 represents that of Job Townsend, Sr., whereas Jeanne Vibert Sloane and others have attributed these entries to Job Townsend, Jr. As the handwriting of 1750 to 1760 is identical to that of later entries, including those written after 1765, the year Job Townsend, Sr., died, the latter interpretation is accepted here. See Michael Moses, Master Craftsmen of Newport: The Townsends and Goddards (Tenafly, N.J.: MMI Americana Press, 1984), p. 248; and Jeanne Vibert Sloane, “John Cahoone and the Newport Furniture Industry,” in New England Furniture: Essays in Memory of Benno Forman, edited by Brock Jobe (Boston: Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, 1987), p.120, nt. 19. 2. For more on Job Townsend, Jr., and, Sr., see Ralph E. Carpenter, Jr., The Arts and Crafts of Newport, Rhode Island 1640–1820 (Newport: Preservation Society of Newport County, 1954), pp. 10–12, 15–16; and Moses, Master Craftsmen of Newport, pp. 247–51. See also Mabel M. Swan, “The Goddard and Townsend Joiners: Part I,” Antiques 49, no. 4 (April 1946): 228–31; Wendell B. Garrett, “The Newport Cabinetmakers: A Corrected Checklist,” Antiques 73, no. 6 (June 1958): 558–561; Wendell B. Garrett, “The Goddard and Townsend Joiners: Random Biographical Notes,” Antiques 94, no. 3 (September 1968): 391–93; and Wendell B. Garrett, “The Goddard and Townsend Joiners of Newport: Random Biographical and Bibliographical Notes,” Antiques 121, no. 5 (May 1982): 1153–55. The tax rolls of 1767 list Job, Jr., and John Goddard with no ratables, whereas John had £105 and Edmund had £34; in 1772, Job, Jr., paid 2s, John paid £2.1, Edmund paid 14s and John Goddard paid 17s; in 1775, Job, Jr., paid 1s 6d, John paid £1.7.7, Edmund paid 9s 3d, and John Goddard paid 11s 6d (Moses, Master Craftsmen of Newport, Appendix A-3, p. 345). 3. Sloane, “John Cahoone and the Newport Furniture Industry,” pp. 89, 91. 4. Philip Zea, “Rural Craftsmen and Design,” in New England Furniture: The Colonial Era, edited by Brock Jobe and Myrna Kaye (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1984), pp. 56–63. The accounts of other cabinetmakers working in both urban and rural settings provide useful comparisons to those of Job Townsend, Jr. Sloane’s study of the accounts of John Cahoone, another Newport cabinetmaker working in the 1750s, shows that Cahoone also concentrated on furniture production, though participating more actively than Job Townsend, Jr., in the export trade and bartering goods. See Sloane, “John Cahoone and the Newport Furniture Industry,” pp. 88–122 and for her tabulation of Cahoone’s work, see Jobe and Kaye, New England Furniture, p. 15, fig. I-7. See also Charles F. Hummel, “The Dominys of East Hampton, Long Island and Their Furniture,” and Charles S. Parsons, “The Dunlaps of New Hampshire and Their Furniture,” both in Country Cabinetwork and Simple City Furniture, edited by John D. Morse (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1970), pp. 34–150. 5. The accounts listed in the ledger and covering the years 1750 to 1759 show that Job Townsend, Jr., did not concentrate on table production to the same degree as he did during the later years. With a total of £2864 of income derived from furniture during these years, the percentages for each form are as follows: tables 36 percent, desks 37 percent, cases of drawers 22 percent, tea boards 2 percent, other 3 percent. For a listing of forms produced each year, see Moses, Master Craftsmen of Newport, Appendix A-6, pp. 346–49. 6. During the 1750s, Job, Jr., made seven mahogany desks valued from £70 to £105 each, a red cedar desk and case valued at £82, four mahogany cases of drawers valued from £75 to £95 each, an unspecified case of drawers valued at £105, a mahogany high case of drawers valued at £90, and four tables valued from £60 to £75 each. Over the fourteen-year period from 1762 to 1776, he made only eight forms valued £200 or higher: six mahogany desks, a mahogany case of drawers, and the nest of drawers mentioned above, also probably made of mahogany. 7. For a previous discussion on the signed slant-front desk, see American Furniture with Related Decorative Arts, 1660–1830, The Milwaukee Art Museum and the Layton Art Collection, edited by Gerald W. R. Ward (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1991), p. 46; and Moses, Master Craftsmen of Newport, p. 267. With the change of currency rates in Rhode Island after 1763 accounting for some of the price differential, maple desks were valued lower during the 1750s, and in the ledger are priced between £30 and £56. The case of drawers made for Katherine Gould appears on p. 77 of the daybook and is second only to a large mahogany desk priced at £330 and made by Job Townsend, Jr., in conjunction with his brother, Edmund, for Nicholas Anderrese in 1767, listed on p. 96. For more on the chest-of-drawers, see Christie’s, Important American Furniture, Silver, Prints, Folk Art and Decorative Arts, New York, January 15–16, 1999, pp.140–45, lot 694. 8. For a listing of all clients recorded in the ledger, see Moses, Master Craftsmen of Newport, Appendix A-10, pp. 354–55. For entries pertaining to the export trade, see Job Townsend, Jr.’s, ledger, pp. 18, 20; and daybook, pp. 71, 73, 80, 87, 94, 96, 99, 104, 110. For details on John Cahoone’s export production, see Sloane, “John Cahoone and the Newport Furniture Industry,” pp. 93, 94. For information regarding the export trade in the late eighteenth century, see Joseph K. Ott, “Rhode Island Furniture Exports, 1783–1800,” Rhode Island History 36, no. 1 (February 1977): 3–13. The ledger provides more details regarding payment, with a client’s credits listed next to the debits, whereas the daybook includes far fewer credits but with several debit entries marked with an “X” indicating that payment was recorded but not specified.