Light and elegant, this writing desk represents the finest Federal-era Baltimore furniture. The form, inspired by English tastemaking furniture designers George Hepplewhite (c. 1727-1786) and Thomas Sheraton (1751-1806), is enriched with delicate inlay and oval reverse-glass painted panels. Like Rebecca James’s New England Still Life hanging nearby, the blue and gold glass panels in the desk were painted backwards – details first, then the main figures, then the background. Graceful if cautionary images of “Temperance” and “Justice” flank a compartment fitted with cubby holes and drawers where a woman of fashion might have hidden her personal correspondence. The compartment is masked by a drop-down inlaid panel that supports another reverse-glass painted panel. Here, Diana, goddess of the hunt, cradles the recumbent form of Endymion, whom the gods granted eternal sleep to preserve his youth and beauty.