DESKS  roll-top
A rather fine oak roll-top desk in which something of Eastlake’s preaching on Gothic reformed furniture has taken effect. Note the panelled sides, the incised line decoration on the drawers and the carved trefoil motif on the slope frame. Undoubtedly intended for use by some professional of ‘reformed’ leanings. c. 1875
An oak roll-top pedestal desk with panelled sides shown open to reveal a generously complex fit-up of pigeon holes, small drawers and letter racks inside. There are four drawers in each pedestal and a pull-out shelf at either side. 1900-1920
An oak roll-top desk similar to the previous example but with a simpler inside fit-up, no foot rail and not panelled at the back. 1900-1920
An oak roll-top desk with a wooden top gallery intended as a bookshelf and fitted with metal drawer handles. The inside has a relatively simple fit-up of two drawers, pigeon holes and ink wells. There is a foot rail and the back is panelled. The piece is on castors. 1900-1920
A half-pedestal oak roll-top desk with metal drawer handles based on the previous model in design.
An oak roll-top desk with ring handles to the drawers. It has a solid frieze around the bottom but is mounted on castors. Quite a complex fit-up to the interior but not as desirable as the example shown in No. 334.
DESKS  Wootton Patent Office (Wells Fargo)
This form has become a category almost to itself, with a ready market in the USA, from which it originates. Usually made in American walnut with figured panels in more desirable versions, but also found in mahogany.
The genre originates from around 1870 and appears in a variety of designs of single- or double-opening typeswith more or less complicated interiors. Really complex large decorative versions are highly sought after and price is affected accordingly. Often referred to, loosely, as a `Wells Fargo’ desk by those fond of watching TV.
A good quality walnut Wootton Patent Office desk of the doubledoored type, shown closed. Note the fielded panels with ebonised moulding, the figured woods and the highly-carved top shelf. There are letter boxes
fitted in the doors so that correspondence can be delivered to the owner while he is away and the piece is locked up. c. 1870
Another Wootton desk, this time shown with the doors open to illustrate the quantity and variety of pigeon holes and drawers in the piece. The writing surface, which conceals more fitments, is shown in the `up’
position, i.e. closed. The top is not carved like the previous example and the wood is mahogany.
Another Wootton desk, this time of the single-opening door type, but with panels and drawers veneered with decorative burr walnut. Although the single-door is not always as convenient as the double-door and tends to off-balance the piece, this version has a complex and attractive interior.
A large double-door version with elaborate interior and carved top similar to 339, shown closed. A handsome piece. c. 1880

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Art Nouveau and Art Deco DESKS About 1890-1940
Belgian art nouveau desk by Gustave Serrurier-Bovy, about 1910.
Art nouveau, 1890-1920: About 1898 van de Velde designs desk with kidney-shaped top mounted on pedestals with drawers and bookshelf extensions. Majorelle’s 1905 writing-tables with dished tops on heavy, semicabriole legs reinterpret rococo. Many commercially manufactured bureau-cabinets are asymmetrical, with shelving on one side of fall.
Modernist, 1920-40: Functional flat-top desks for home and office, including some asymmetrical types – pedestal of drawers on one side only – prototype for typist’s desk.
Built-in fitments often combine writing-surfaces with bookshelves.
Art Deco, 1920-40: Running concurrently with modernist functionalism, Art Deco designers frequently borrow from it – e.g. asymmetrical arrangements of drawers, but for dramatic effect rather than practical convenience. Rich materials lavished on domestic writing-tables and vast office desks for tycoons. Period also offers many unspectacular but satisfying desks of all types, simply designed and well-made.
Art nouveau: Main preferences walnut and mahogany; variety of woods for marquetry.
Modernist: Oak, ash, elm. Glass or leather for tops, tubular steel frames for desks in Le Corbusier’s style.
Art Deco: Mahogany, walnut, figured ebony, fine skins and leathers for tops. Plywood for drawer-bottoms and backs of cheaper products.
Art nouveau: Best examples almost entirely hand-made, though Majorelle uses machinery for shaping complex curves.
Modernist: Ideologically non-traditional, many makers use screws or bolts in place of
mortise-and-tenon joints. Attempts at producing inexpensive furniture often fail because capable machines not yet developed.
Art Deco: Best work, e.g. desks by Ruhlmann of Paris, hand-crafted; flashy types mass-produced by using machines for planing, dovetailing, cutting mortises, but hand-assembled.
Almost by definition, modernism avoids decoration. Good art nouveau and Art Deco use carving, marquetry, inlay in silver and semiprecious stones, ormolu mounts (Majorelle’s speciality). Cheaper art nouveau bureau-cabinets have leaded light glass doors, large bronzed metal hinges.
Art nouveau: Better examples waxed, secondary ones French polished.
Modernist: Often brightly painted.
Art Deco: Better pieces hand-finished, using thin skins (skivers) for writing surfaces. Cheap products sprayed with cellulose; writing-surfaces inset with imitation leather.
Top quality desks, if suitable for executive suites, are disproportionately expensive because they are being paid for out of company funds rather than private money. Best private buys are probably simply designed 1930s desks and bureaux using mostly solid hardwoods.
LEATHER TOPS
Never reject a basically good flat-topped desk because the leather top is shabby. Re-leathering is not unduly expensive, and transforms the appearance.

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