Lady's secretary from the Mark Hopkins house, San Francisco

Manufacturer Herter Brothers

Manufacturer Pottier and Stymus Manufacturing Company

Date1878

Geographic OriginNew York, New York

MediumRosewood, mahogany, maple, copper, brass

DimensionsOverall: H 75 1/2 x W 52 1/2 x D 19 1/2 in. (H 191.8 x W 133.4 x D 49.5 cm)

Credit LinePurchase 2010 Helen McMahon Brady Cutting Fund

Object number2010.8A-J

On View

Not on view

Object NameCabinet | Secretary

Title Details

Label Caption Title Lady's secretary from the Mark Hopkins house, San Francisco

InscriptionsDrawers and pigeonhole insert have pencil inscriptions (see separate notes). In pencil on bottom of pigeonhole section, in script of period: "Secretary 56012 / Room 14" and "New York 1878"Marks and Labels/Stampssee inscriptions on individual entries (pigeonhole insert; back of A, back of B), not markedProvenanceCommissioned in 1878 by Herter Brothers for Mary Frances Sherwood Hopkins (1818-1891) the widow of Mark Hopkins (1813-1878) for the rosewood salon or music room of the Hopkins house on Nob Hill in San Francisco. The house, as well as Sherwood Hall in Menlo Park (built in the early 1870s as Thurlow Lodge for Milton Latham, and also decorated by Herter Brothers) were both given to Mrs. Hopkins adopted son, Timothy Nolan Hopkins. Mrs. Hopkins died in 1891 (having married Edward Searles, the chief operative for Herter Brothers in San Francisco in 1887). After her death, Timothy Hopkins and his wife Mary gave the Nob Hill house to the city, for which it became the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art; and the furniture was removed to Sherwood Hall. The Nob Hill house burned in the earthquake of 1906, and Sherwood Hall was damaged. Timothy and Mary Hopkins apparently built a house in San Francisco, and it was here that the widowed Mrs. Timothy Hopkins died in 1942. Her estate was auctioned off by Butterfields in that year, and Warner Brothers Pictures purchased a number of pieces of furniture. They sold some of this furniture in January 2009 at Bonhams in NYC. Margot Johnson purchased this piece at that sale.Exhibition History"Artistic Furniture of the Gilded Age: George A. Shastey", Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, NY 2/15/2015 - 5/1/2016

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