A cabinet and writing desk used by perhaps all of the Dutch Patroons, of Albany, is shown in Illustration 94. It has stood in the same house, Cherry Hill, Albany, since 1768, when the house was built by Philip Van Rensselaer, the ancestor of the present owner, Mrs. Edward W. Rankin. [Illustration: Illus. 95.—Desk, about 1680.] It was probably brought from Holland by Killian Van Rensselaer, and in it were kept the accounts of the manor. The desk is open in Illustration 95, showing the compartments for papers and books. The wood of this splendid piece is oak, beautifully panelled and carved, and the fine panel seen when the desk is closed forms, when lowered, the shelf for writing. Similar pieces appear in paintings by old Dutch masters. [Illustration: Illus. 96.—Desk, 1710-1720.] Illustration 96 shows a desk owned by Miss Gage, of Worcester, of rather rude construction, and apparently not made by a skilled cabinet-maker. It has two long drawers with two short drawers above them. The space above these two short drawers is reached from an opening or well with a slide, directly in front of the small drawers of the interior, which may be seen in the illustration. The pillars at each side of the middle compartment pull out as drawers. The handles are new, and should be drop handles, or early stamped ones. The characteristics which determine the date of this desk are the single moulding around the drawers, the two short drawers, and the well opening with a slide. The bracket feet would indicate a few years’ later date than that of similar pieces with ball feet. During the first half of the eighteenth century slant-top desks appeared with a bookcase or cabinet top. The lower or desk part was made usually with a moulding around the top, into which the upper part was set. The doors were of panelled wood or had looking-glasses set in them, but occasionally they were of glass. The frontispiece shows an extraordinary piece of furniture owned by Samuel Verplanck, Esq., of Fishkill, New York. It has belonged in the family of Mr. Verplanck since 1753, when it was bought by an ancestor, Governor James de Lancey, at an auction sale of the effects of Sir Danvers Osborne, who was governor of the Province of New York for the space of five days, as he landed at Whitehall Slip, New York, from the good ship _Arundel_ on Friday, and the following Wednesday he committed suicide. Sir Danvers had brought his household goods with him upon the _Arundel_, and among them was this secretary. Lacquered furniture was fashionable during the first quarter of the eighteenth century, and while the first lacquered pieces came through Holland, by 1712 “Japan work” was so popular, even in the American colonies, that an advertisement of Mr. Nehemiah Partridge appeared in a Boston paper of that year, that he would do “all sorts of Japan work.”