This tall and stately secretary, fashioned of the finest figured mahogany, is a masterpiece from the shop of Nathaniel Gould, the leading cabinetmaker of Salem, Massachusetts, in the third quarter of the eighteenth century. When Gould died in 1781, he was called a gentleman, having sometime before given up working with his hands. On an inside surface, the desk and bookcase bear the enigmatic inscription: "Nath Gould not his work." Presumably a master joiner in his shop wrote these words so that posterity would not credit Gould himself with actually having crafted the piece.

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