I toured the Hawthorn House A.K.A. “The House of Seven Gables” 16 years ago and also as a child on a grade school field trip. (That was back when they would actually let you ascend the hidden staircase inside the enormous chimney((Pretty cool)).
Anyway, on the most recent tour, they proudly displayed Nathaniel Hawthorns writing desk where it is said he had written all of his books. They also noted that the volunteers had just completed the refinishing job on the desk. “Didn’t they do a nice job?”.
I’m not a big fan of Hawthorn as much as I am a fan of cool stuff. I was taken aback and almost said something. “Are you people insane??” This was well before the days of “Antique Roadshow” and anything like it. But if I knew better than to re-finish an important antique then I assumed the curators of the Hawthorn House would know as well.
Obviously they desecrated the value of the desk. That’s not important because it would be unlikely that the desk would ever be sold. Yet I still found it disturbing and thought the desk would have been more interesting with 200 years of patina, than it would to look like a brand new replica of an antique. I can NOT find a photo of the desk online anywhere either. I wonder if they realized the mistake and put it in storage. I did find one of his desk online and it’s NOT the desk. It’s a little dinky thing with it’s original finish. The desk they claimed was HIS was very large. About 5’ across and 3’ deep, heavy looking and well made. it would take two strong men to move it.
I haven’t been back in these 16 years. I’m wondering if anyone who has been there recently has seen the desk? Do they still mention that the staff volunteers re-finished it. Or are they pretending that some little card table was his writing desk. Or other?
The desk is a part of American History. Maybe even more so than the house itself. So what’s the deal?
One would think that if the desk is still on display one would find photos galore of it on Google images. But it’s not there. I wonder if someone on a following tour said what I didn’t dare, and the desk is now in storage, and they’re trying to pass off an old crappy secretary for the real thing?
I’ve never heard the House of Seven Gables called “Hawthiorne’s House”. I don’t think he ever lived there. I don’t recall a Hawthorne chhair in the house.
Hawthorne did live in The Old Manse in Concord for a year, and they might have a chair of his.
Googling “Nathaniel Hawthorne Chair” Turns up this unlikely result:
Moved to Cafe Society from Great Debates.
This desk (first Google images result for "Nathaniel Hawthorne desk)?
Looks more like a raven to me.
Nevar
The Hawthorne Birthplace, where he lived until the age of 4, was moved in 1958 next door to the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion (which belonged to Hawthorne’s cousin and inspired House of the Seven Gables). It’s possible the OP was confused. Neither, however, was occupied by Hawthorne as an adult, and neither has any reason to possess Hawthorne’s writing desk (assuming he had only one; he moved around quite a bit).
The photo is of Hawthorne’s desk at the Salem custom house, where he worked for a time. He had little energy for writing then, and the desk is clearly not the one the OP was shown. This desk in his house in Concord is more closely associated with him, though he wrote nothing of importance there.