Antique Victorian and Edwardian Davenports.
DESKS davenports
The davenport desk has been associated with the Victorian period for so long that it seems strange to conjecture that its popularity was possibly in decline by the 1880s. The name comes from Gillow’s Cost Books of the 1790s ‘Captain Davenport, a desk’ written alongside the design. So the davenport was initially a Georgian and, later, a Regency piece of furniture, before the Victorians took it up. The earliest forms are, as expected, squarer, and it was the 1850s that brought about the rococo scrolled, cabriole leg form of front support in place of the pillars that arose in the 1820s and 1830s. Readers of the Price Guide to Antique Furniture will have followed the development of these earlier types.
By 1860 the scrolled supports were slowly disappearing in favour of pillars of debased classical form and, finally, were dropped altogether. There is overlap in all these designs, as the catalogues of Smee, Booth,
Shoolbred and Light show. There were even Reformed Gothic davenports from Richard Charles in 1866. But the period 1860-1890 in general saw a rather stiffer form of davenport, as though the rococo curves of the
1850s had been straightened up in favour of something that did not go back to Georgian severity and cleanliness of line, but which met the demand for a more Louis XVI look and, finally, the vogue for ebonised and spindly-turned ornamentation. Heal’s catalogue of 1884 shows several rather mean examples, not cheap for their time, but stiff, with predictably machined turning or bas relief carving. Not many ebonised examples seem to have survived and by the early 20th century other forms of small desk seem to have supplanted the davenport.
The thing to look for in Davenports is burr walnut nowadays by far the most popular type of this period followed by rosewood, walnut, and, far behind, mahogany. Ebonised davenports are an acquired taste.
307 (above) A high quality burr walnut ‘harlequin’ davenport with a ‘piano shaped top with a lid that lifts to reveal a pull-out writing slide. The superstructure has a hinged letter rack operating on a spring mechanism
released by a button inside a short drawer. The piece has inlaid boxwood stringing and stylised flowers. The drawers down the side in view are genuine sliding drawers, whilst on the other side there are four dummy
drawer fronts. This is the normal, and preferred arrangement except for examples where the drawers are contained inside a cupboard door. An example which has all the high-quality features and gadgetry associated with the highly-prized versions. A very similar model is illustrated in Shoolbred, 1876.
1860-1880
An interesting form of burr-walnut davenport of a design shown in catalogues of the 1870s and 1880s but which owes something to the 1860s in its use of veneers and naturalistic fretted carving. The two top upper
doors open to reveal letter compartments and, in some versions, small drawers. There is a frieze drawer which contains a hinged writing slope. A side door in the lower section, panelled with a carved fretted
adornment, opens to reveal four drawers. The piece is inlaid with boxwood stringing and stylised flowers. Not as expensive a form as the piano top but still a highly-prized piece.
1860-1880
A rosewood davenport of the cabriole leg type of front support, using the scrolling rococo form popular in the 1850s. A design which was still made for another twenty years, though it must have been thoroughly out of fashion by the 1880s. The fretted top gallery shows an alternative form to the lidded stationery compartment of protruding type shown in the other examples.
1850-1880
An interesting and unusual oak davenport in Gothic style with clustered column supports. Gothic style davenports were illustrated by Pugin himself in 1835 but a much more Regency, elaborate ‘Gothick’ form and in the Reformed Gothic manner by Richard Charles in 1866 and C. & R. Light in 1881. The style of this davenport is more of the earlier Victorian unreformed variety but could have been repeated by later makers.
A figured (but not burr) walnut davenport of simple design but a perennial one. The top lid opens to give access to a letter rack; the sloping writing surface lifts to give access to a fitted interior. Four real drawers on one side, four dummy ones on the other. 1870-1890
The end of the line for davenports from a catalogue of c.1910. No pillars, an inlaid ‘Sheraton’ satinwood banding and no decoration to speak of on the cheap stained mahogany, doubtless finished with French polish. C. 1910
An Aesthetic Movement ebonised davenport with characteristic design features painted panels, this time of birds, panelled construction and rather fussy turning. At the top of the pillars there is a curious Anglo-Japanese bracket just to show that the makers had kept up with Godwin and the latest taste. c. 1880
A really late Victorian form in mahogany with little pretension to elegance and very stiff in execution. The turned columns have lost their way and are not sure what form to take. The base is plain and rigid. A panel has been suggested by applied mouldings. The top retains the features of the earlier davenports, however, and the inherent usefulness of the type. 1885-1900
Tags: 1790s, 1820s, 1830s, antique furniture, cabriole, DAVENPORT, Davenports, Desks, Louis, Regency, Rococo, victorian period, Victorians