Secrets & Symbols: Desk by John Shearer

Desk, 1817
John Shearer (about 1760–after 1818)
VMHC Collection, Gift of The Children of Louis and Harriett Waldrop 

John Shearer, a Scottish immigrant, was one of the most skilled furniture makers working around 1800 in the Shenandoah Valley, then Virginia’s backcountry. He made this desk for Alfred Belt (1788–1872), a doctor and planter in Loudoun County, and his wife.