Antique Queen Anne Secretaire
Queen Anne secretaire
The increasing skill of the cabinet-maker and the change in style to loftier and more spacious houses brought new variations to antique writing furniture.
Signs of authenticity of Queen Anne secretaire
1. Plinth moulding with matching moulding on joins of component parts.
2. Side veneers matching on component parts.
3. If with serpentine apron incorporating bracket feet, piece made after c.1715.
4. Flush edges to writing flap and doors.
5. Wide-bevelled ‘Vauxhall’ mirrored glass.
6. Oak bearers to support writing flap.
7. Early oak bearers square in section with small brass knobs.
8. Later oak bearers equal in depth to top drawer with small fan-shaped handles.
9. If single door, it always opens left to right.
10. Brass slide fastenings with steel bolts on left-hand door, lock on right.
11. Dust boards between drawers in base.
12. Interior fittings of veneered cabinets and desks usually in oak or walnut, with bone or ivory knobs.
13. Locks and escutcheons to all drawers in base.
14. Only two pin hinges on each cabinet door. top and bottom.
Likely restoration and repair
15. ‘Marriages’ between component parts of several damaged pieces - sides of secretaire are often in a single piece, cut on the joins.
16. ‘Marriage’ when top is proportionately too small for base - a deep ‘bandage’ and bracket feet are often added to increase height.
17. Elaborate cabinet fittings too badly damaged to restore -often replaced with later bookshelf fittings, or with glass-fronted display cabinet.
18. Part or whole of original lacquer flaked and damaged. It is often replaced, repainted with modern materials.
increasing their height with elaborately fitted cabinets surmounted with elegant curves or broken pediments. These pieces were designed. to stand between the high windows of architect-designed houses and were
always tall and slim.
The base of the secretaire consisted of a much smaller fall-fronted or slope-fronted desk with three or four drawers below it. Above, there were block-fronted or mirrored-
glass doors behind which were shelves for books or elaborate arrangements of small drawers and pigeonholes for ledgers and documents. Miniature architectural features such as columns and architraves concealed secret drawers and compartments. Particularly in vogue were lacquered Queen Anne secretaires which have a strong appeal to the copyist.
An antique secretaire was made in two or three separate pieces: the base, the fall-front or slope-fronted desk and the cabinet. Sometimes the desk and base are made in a single piece, sometimes in two, as with early bureaux. The cabinets are always separate, slotting into moulding round the top of the base. They were made in finely figured walnut veneer on close-grained pine carcases, with pine or beech for lacquered versions.
The back of each component part was of relatively thin oak, pine or beech planking, nailed to the carcase. Drawers were of oak or oak and pine. The doors of the cabinet were hung on two pin hinges, and the writing
flap had flush edges with cleated sides and an inset velvet or cloth panel. Bun feet were typical until c.1710, when they were superseded by bracket feet.
The proportions of provincial pieces are not the same as those of their grander counterparts. The writing compartments are usually slope-fronted and deeper. The overall effect makes the secretaire look remarkably
narrow. A block-fronted cabinet was more common than glazed doors, and mirrored doors were the rarest.
Provincial pieces were not as tall as grander versions and frequently lacked a decorative pediment. The finest country examples may have simple architectural moulding and lunettes to bottom drawers of bases, inlaid
with decorative stringing. Similar-shaped desk-and-cabinets were also made with block-fronted doors, with simple walnut veneer on an oak and pine carcase.
Right: secretaire-bookcase, c.1720. Far right: elaborate walnut veneered secretaire, c.1710.
On veneered secretaires, the interior fittings of desk and cabinet were usually made in oak or walnut, frequently with boxwood stringing or bone or ivory inlay. Narrow bands of cross-cut veneer edged the drawers and a broader band framed the writing flap. Lacquered secretaires were equally elaborate and on both veneered and lacquered cabinets the insides of the cabinet doors were as lavishly decorated as the rest of the piece.
Lacquer was often applied to a gesso base, built up in relief for decorative features such as dragons, pagodas, buildings, trees and birds. Red grounds were popular, black less so for secretaires, blue was seldom used and green and yellow only occasionally the varnish discoloured and dulled them to a dirty khaki.
Reproductions
Some excellently proportioned reproductions are being made today, both lacquered and veneered, particularly for the American market. The methods of construction will be entirely modern, incorporating steamed and bonded woods, even veneered
`Made up’ versions or copies of country-made secretaires are likely to give themselves away by the most fundamental errors.
Original and complete Queen Anne secretaire furniture, unrestored, $20,000-35,000.
Original Queen Anne secretaire, but much restored, $10,000 15,000
Nineteenth century secretaire-bookcase, $1,250-2,000.
Edwardian secretaire furniture, in fine condition, $850-1,250.
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Tags: bandage, brass knobs, display cabinet, drawer, Marriage, modern materials, Queen Anne, secretaires, Vauxhall