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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Antique French DESKS About 1770-1800
Louis XVI secretaire-a-abattant in satinwood with marquetry decoration.
Neo-classical, first phase: ‘Louis XVI’ style already established in France by 1771, four years before death of Louis XV. Sinuous shapes replaced by rectilinear carcase for secretaire, straight tapered legs (square or round section) on bureau plat and cylinder-topped desk. Many pieces still highly decorative but trend towards plainer style was marked in the 1780s.
Dubois makes arguably the first bureau plat on tapered legs about 1768; Riesener noted for type of small writing-table with projecting central panel of frieze, also for a lady’s worktable with writing-slide on end supports. Many ebenistes work to instructions from a marchand-mercier (intermediary between maker and customer). After 1789 Revolution, an austere version of the style continues under the Directoire.
Germany adopts rectilinear carcase for bureau-cabinet on turned and tapered legs, but rococo shaping retained in pediment, e.g. one made in Berlin, 1775, by Fiedler for Frederick the Great. Cylinder-top bureau popular 1780-1820 in Mainz.
Vienna produces elegant version of bonheur-du-jour, showing French and English influences; these also evident in Italy where decorative elements of style are emphasized in tall bureau-cabinets, and Spain where neat knee-hole writing-tables have richly ornamented drawer-fronts.
Louis XVI bonheur dujour.
In 1771, Holland prohibits imports of furniture to protect Dutch craftsmen who produce fine fall-front secretaires and writing-tables in neo-classical style. In Sweden, Haupt makes magnificent examples of bureaux plat in Denmark, bureaux and bureau-cabinets with slope fronts are simple in outline but colourfully painted.
Catherine the Great imports numerous desks into Russia, some by Roentgen, which serve as models for simplified versions by craftsmen in St Petersburg and on country estates. In Poland, chunky slope-front bureaux with very wide crossbandings produced in Kolbuszowa (Little Poland).
Mainly as in the previous period but with the important addition of mahogany to the French repertoire.
Mainly as in previous period but with revived use of stretchers to strengthen slim-legged stands for heavy carcases, e.g. in Paris, Weisweiler makes secretaires raised on legs joined by interlaced stretchers.
Marquetry still highly popular (until fashion for plain mahogany desks takes off), but subjects are neo-classical – e.g. in Milan, Maggiolini uses marquetry panels depicting Greek gods and goddesses.
Parquetry – geometric arrangements of small pieces of contrasting veneer – also used in many countries, e.g. for falls of cylinder bureaux by Tenuta, Lisbon, one of few Portuguese cabinetmakers to sign work; signature found in secret drawers, embossed on leather panels.
Neo-classical motifs also used for carved decoration, e.g. urns, swags, Roman busts surmounting secretaires by Bonzanigo, Turin; also for ormolu mounts of very high quality in France and Germany.
Handles and mounts are first feature to be adapted to the change from rococo to neoclassical.
Many small French writing-tables painted with flowered trellis patterns using coloured varnishes (vernis Martin). Danish bureaux painted with formal patterns in bright colours on cool ground. Marquetry brought to very high finish by varnishing, sanding down and waxing; colours of various woods, now mellow, vivid when new and some made more so with stains. What English collectors now prize as ‘patina’ is result of fading, waxing and dirt; less appreciated on Continent where many pieces are re-finished to restore former glory.
Grand pieces understandably expensive but many lesser bureaux and writing-tables of this period can be bought reasonably, e.g. cylinder-top bureaux in plain mahogany of late-Louis XVI or Directoire vintage, or Dutch secretaires decorated with marquetry or lacquer panels.
Although the word ‘ormolu’ derives from French meaning “ground gold”, in France the mounts are described as les bronzes dots or simply les bronzes.
Interlaced stretchers.

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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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ANTIQUE OAK, WALNUT AND MAHOGANY SECRETAIRES
The term secretaire is a kind of catch-all word for antique writing furniture other than out-and-out bureaux, davenports, bonheurs-du-jour, pedestal desks and other specific items. It is used for fall-front walnut pieces, often described in their original papers as scrutoires (or escritoires) and for later pieces of a writing nature.
A walnut secretaire chest on chest with an unusual design of recessed sunburst in the bottom drawer, indicating quality. The quality of the interior of the secretaire drawer is quite exceptional, with concave curved drawers and pigeon-holes. Note that the drawers have a lip moulding and herring-bone inlaid lines inside the crossbanding. A fine piece with superb patination.
Wide range because colour and patination very important
A high quality mahogany chest with a broken pediment The corners of the upper chest have a blind fret. It is the right therefore desirable. 1740-1760
secretaire chest on with dentil frieze. are chamfered and height to sit at.
A rather uninspired oak secretaire chest on chest with slide and pillared corners to the upper chest. The top moulding is arcaded in the cavetto and has a dentil frieze above in the top moulding. The interior is a little crude and either the drawer runners are worn or the drawers don’t fit, but above all it is too high to sit at, which renders it unusable, hence undesirable. 1740-1760
A plain but well-bred mahogany secretaire chest on Hepplewhite splayed feet with shaped apron. A neat interior fit-up in satin-finish wood and original
handles to the drawers. It will end up married to a bookcase top, trying to look like an impoverished
cousin of 1780-1800
A mahogany secretaire chest on chest, with fine quality figuring, on serpentine bracket feet. The fittings of the secretaire drawer are also of high quality with ogee-curved pigeon-hole decoration. The top moulding is fluted and dentiled; the whole finish is high quality and the piece looks good. 1750-1770
A good quality mahogany secretaire chest of slightly later date with boxwood stringing and ivory inlaid keyholes. Note that instead of the top moulding of the previous example, there is a flush top raised above the secretaire drawer, with inlaid stringing lines in a pattern. The use of light coloured wood to imitate swags of drapery over the pigeon-holes is particularly imaginative  a good crisp piece, which will be hard to marry. If attempts are made, the satinwood stringing line design will be repeated on the frieze of the bookcase but the grain of the wood is likely to give the game away. 1790-1810

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DESKS: CARLTON HOUSE
About 1785-1915
An Edwardian reproduction of a satinwood Carlton House desk.
Associated by name with the Prince Regent’s London house, and mostly dating from the Regency period, these were first mentioned as such in the 1796 cost books of Gillows of Lancaster, Described in contemporary pattern books as a `lady’s writing-table’. Made throughout the 19thC; very fine ‘Sheraton’ reproductions made by the Edwardians. Still reproduced today.
Carlton House desks are distinguished from other writing-tables by their large size (width usually more than 5 feet/1.5 m) and their low superstructure extending around the curves of their D-shaped top.
Made in two parts, the lower with two or three shallow frieze drawers; sometimes with an additional shallow lower drawer on each side. Generally tapering legs with spade feet (correctly tapering on inner edge only),
extending up to form corners of framing and standing slightly proud of vertical rails. Alternatively, turned legs with occasional ring mouldings (from about 1800) set underneath rectangular top, often with rounded (but no D) corners. Slightly overhanging top with moulded edge; inset leather writing-surface
bordered by cross-banded veneer.
Early superstructures comprised a small central cupboard flanked by tiers of drawers, they in turn flanked by concave-fronted cupboards and concave-lidded compartments with single or dummy drawer below.
Continuous flat top generally bordered by brass occasionally wood  gallery. Later superstructures more varied, often lacking concave-sectioned parts.
Principally satinwood and mahogany, with inlay of box, holly, harewood, kingwood etc. Occasionally rosewood. Sometimes amboyna and other figured woods. Bird’s-eye maple used for some Victorian pieces.
Pine or mahogany for carcases (with oak or mahogany for drawer linings). Pine throughout used for late reproductions.
Standard methods employed. Glued mortiseand-tenon joints with fine, lapped dovetails on drawers (machine-cut in later 19thC). All outer surfaces (except turned legs) veneered.
Stain or varnish, followed by wax polish.
Chiefly figuring of veneer with inlaid stringing lines and neo-classical motifs such as shells, drapery, scrolls etc. Sometimes similar painted decoration (these often Edwardian reproductions).
Handles: Can be simple bails with circular backplates on lower drawers; small brass knobs above. Occasionally lion’s mask ring handles below. Often small ring handles matching on all drawers  with plain or decorative (but basically circular) backplates.
VALUES
Original, early and finely veneered and inlaid examples are immensely valuable. Even good Edwardian reproductions may reach five figures. The least desirable are mid- to late-Victorian rectangular versions
particularly those with a raised centre to the superstructure  but even so, prices can still rise to four figures.

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DESKS: PEDESTAL
About 1750 onwards
Mahogany pedestal desk, early-19th Century.
Asubstantial piece of writing furniture deriving from the type of pedestal ‘library’ or ‘writing-table’ made and illustrated by Thomas Chippendale and other high quality London-based cabinet makers in the mid-18thC. Subsequently made in a wide range of sizes, the largest being the double. sided partners’ desk, the smallest the half-pedestal devised around 1900. Particularly popular during the 19th and 20thC for office use.
Early library tables with two pedestals of four drawers with a plain top with frieze below and carved and shaped apron fronting kneehole recess. Sometimes panelled cupboard doors enclosing pedestal drawers.
From about 1765 standard form evolved. Made in three parts: two pedestal bases, each containing a flight of three drawers of graduated depth. Sides generally flat when veneered, panelled when solid. Top with three frieze drawers, outer two of equal width to drawers below. Continuous plinth around bases (in late 19thC sometimes fitted with concealed castors). Occasionally bracket feet; short turned legs after 1790. Overhanging top with lip or thumb-nail moulding; narrow moulding around lower edge of top section.
Writing- surface with tooled (sometimes gilt) border. Later 19thC cloth imitation common. Can be laid in three sections. One pedestal sometimes has a cupboard, fronted by dummy drawers.
Above, late- Victorian mahogany pedestal desk, about 1880-1890; below, kidney-shaped mahogany pedestal desk, about 1800-1820.
By far the majority were rectangular; a few kidney- or D-shaped between about 1790 and 1820. Being free-standing, all visible surfaces were finished (i.e. back and inner sides of pedestals). Occasionally there was a solid back to the recess. (This feature was often found on simple provincial and country-made versions; used in smaller rooms of smaller houses, against the wall  i.e. not free-standing.)
Second half of 19thC saw continuous production of the standard model, but also an attempt to apply the prevailing historic revival and other styles such as:
Reformed Gothic: Chamfered edges, panels of diagonal planking, incised line decoration, carved trefoils.
Elizabethan: Heavily carved, dark-stained oak, carved wood, lion’s mask, pull handles.
Sheraton: Principally inlay, some marquetry, in contrasting coloured satinwood. Cross-banding too.
Variations included:
Partners’ desks (from about 1770): As a standard pedestal but double-sized and double-sided. Sometimes there are drawers one side and cupboards the others, but usually the configuration was identical.
Half-pedestals (about 1900 onwards): Made in one piece with apron below single drawer and simple legs replacing missing side.
Simple office desks (about 1900 onwards):With two four-drawer pedestals and plain top (i.e. without drawers). Curved apron fronting recess.
Late versions of standard pedestals may have bracket feet or short, turned or tapering legs ending in cup of box socket castors, considerably altering overall proportion, generally looking too insubstantial to support significant weight above.
From 1900 solid backs to recesses of office desks (for purposes of modesty) much more common. Some pieces with additional floor-level foot-rail.
Mostly mahogany. Commonly oak in 19thC, or pine, originally stained to simulate mahogany, but now usually sold stripped and waxed. Occasionally rosewood during Regency; burr walnut, yew and other figured woods in Victorian times. Sometimes satinwood for decorative panels of veneer.
Standard methods employed (see CHESTS OF DRAWERS, p. 93). Top framework with mortise-and-tenon joints. Top slots over blocks were glued to top of base.
Structural alterations not common, but occasionally marriage of bases to different top, or the superstructure (feature sometimes found on late 19thC pieces) removed and top re-veneered or replaced with new. Occasionally plain oak versions were veneered later to up price; look for all-oak carcase.
MOCK-GEORGIAN DESKS
Very many Victorian and early 20thC desks refurbished with new leather and period-style brass handles and sold as `Georgian’. Check construction of drawers carefully; watch particularly for plywood linings (an inter-war feature). The holes left by former handles may give a clue to the date. The horizontal wooden pulls common from about 1900 will show two screw holes (both inside and out) further apart than you would expect on a standard handle; the semi-elliptical metal handles popular between the wars will leave three
small screw or pin holes on the outside only, arranged as the three points of a triangle; Victorian wooden knobs will leave a 1/2 inch/I cm diameter hole on both sides.
Very little decoration. Some carving on verticals and friezes of early writing-tables. Inlay, mostly in the form of stringing lines, and occasionally marquetry of neo-classical inspiration, on drawers from about 1780; revived again in late 19thC (though this tends to be heavier, executed in strongly contrasting yellow satinwood). Sometimes narrow cross-banded veneer rather than inlay.
Some use of burr or highly figured veneers throughout 19thC.

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DESKS: DAVENPORT

Regency rosewood Davenport desk with swivel top.
Antique davenport desk produced in 18th century 1795-1885 small free-standing writing-desk made in large numbers and with many variations through the 19thC. The name derives from an entry in the 1790s cost books of Gillow in Lancaster - ‘For Capt. Davenport, a desk’- alongside a design for a boxlike desk with drawers opening to one side and a writing-slope above. Although presumably as a space-saving design for use on board ship, its small size and lower-than-average height ensured its popularity with women and children.
Regency davenport desk had a simple slope-top box which could either slide forward or sideways on runners to provide knee-space, or swivel to one side on a stout peg. Some had a brushing and/candle slide at one side (see p. 329). The flat surface above the slope was generally bordered by a brass gallery. Many had a long, narrow drawer fitted with small compartments for ink and writing implements which pulled out from one side. This was usually released by removal of a long pin inside the desk, its head masquerading as the knob of a small dummy drawer. Most desks were supported on bun feet, some on short, turned legs on castors.
During the 1820s the front of oak and mahogany davenport desk was often faced with pilasters, but more commonly a fixed slope, supported on pillars rising from a plinth, replaced the sliding top. The lower drawers became correspondingly narrower. Galleries were constructed from wood, and bun feet were flattened or replaced by semi-concealed castors.
By the mid 1850s elaborately carved rococo cabriole (or triple C-scroll) desk supports were fashionable, their curves often echoed by a serpentine front to the slope above. Gal-black walnut Davenport with inlaid stringing and ebony bandings, about 1860.
Rosewood, about 1880,
Mid-Victorian walnut Davenport with rococo scroll supports.
After 1860 ‘piano lid’ tops were popular, with pull-out writing-slides.
Pillars gradually retreated under a cantilevered top and by the 1870s were more decorative than functional, in some cases being replaced by brackets.
During the 1880s fashionable ‘Art Furniture’ Davenports had short ring-turned legs and panels of gilded and painted decoration.
The greatest variation in Victorian Davenports occurred in the position and conformation of the stationery compartments which could be quite varied:
Simply inside the desk (as in a bureau, seep. 100);
The early-type pull-out drawer desk, hinged to lie flat against the side of the desk when fully extended;
A raised and lidded box on the flat shelf above the slope, or a lidded compartment set beneath it;
In a large ’secret’ compartment rising up at the back of the desk when released by a lever, button or sliding panel hidden somewhere inside. Sometimes they moved in conjunction with a pull-out writing-slide. Pieces with these rising ‘harlequin’ superstructures are generally
Design for Davenport of around 1880, referred to as ‘harlequin Davenports’;
Later examples sometimes had a small two-door cupboard above the slope.
Features common to all types include:
Symmetry of design. Drawers matched by dummy drawers on opposite side. Similarly, a panelled door enclosing drawers matched by panelling.
Finished on all sides. The back panelling usually complements the front.
Matched colour and grain of timber on top and bottom sections. (Failure to do so may indicate a later ‘marriage’.)
Locks on desk, stationery compartment and all drawers (or enclosing door). Commonly Bramah locks (see p. 94), but sometimes skeleton escutcheons).
Right, Victorian walnut Davenpod, with piano front and harlequin writing superstructure.
Very late mahogany examplc.
Standard practices for the day employed. Harlequin rising superstructures generally work on a spring mechanism, but occasionally on counter-balanced weights.
Solid mahogany, rosewood and walnut, and veneers of the same on an oak or deal base. Occasionally satinwood. Other highly figured veneers such as amboyna or burr walnut
were greatly favoured by the Victorians. Cheaper versions were made in solid oak, elm or poor quality mahogany or imported walnut.
Brass, ebony, mother-of-pearl, boxwood and many other timbers used for inlaid decoration.
Writing-surfaces fitted with inset leather panels, with tooled and often gilded borders.
Restrained inlay and stringing lines of brass or ebony on some pre-Victorian examples.
In the early Victorian period (up to the mid-1860s) decoration was largely supplied by ornate carving on the supports, applied split mouldings on flat surfaces and pierced galleries
around the top. Until about 1870 highly figured veneers were considered a decorative feature in their own right.
During the 1860s inlaid panels of stylized or naturalistic flowers popularly adorned the front panel and occasionally the sides too.
Handles: Small, turned wooden knobs on all drawers. Metal handles only correctly seen on very late examples.
In most cases, wax polish. Very cheap Victorian versions were heavily stained and usually finished with a glossy French polish (see p. 16). During the 1880s many were fashionably ebonised with gilt incised decoration.
VALUES
Totally plain Victorian davenport desks are within the average buyer’s reach. Highly decorative, burr veneer, harlequin examples can fetch sums in high four figures. The majority are in the low four figures. Surprisingly, fussy Victorian Davenports sell better today than more elegant Georgian ones.

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English Walnut and Mahogany Secretaires

A William and Mary period fall-front secretaire cabinet on chest in walnut. c. 1690. The heavy mouldings in cross grained walnut, convex cushion drawer, and bun feet show the Dutch influence of William’s reign. The piece is veneered in fairly straight grained English walnut without much figure and shows herring-bone inlay around the panel in the fall as well as herring-bone cross banding on the drawers. The handles are of correct period style and may be original. Note that the veneer on the fall front is quartered, like chest tops of the period.
Price Range: $300-$400 Value points: See section notes

The walnut fall front secretaire of the previous photograph shown open. Note the continuation of the drawer front style within, where herring-bone cross banding and simple half-round or ‘D’ mouldings echo the exterior arrangement. All the drawers in the piece are oak lined, even the convex fronted cushion drawer under the top moulding, which is a shallow drawer the full width of the piece. These fall front secretaries, although often finely made and exhibiting all the merits of their period decoratively, are not as popular as normal bureaux due to their size and lack of space under the fall when closed - we are all untidy with our papers and one cannot just drop them into the space under the fall on this piece, for it does not exist:
Price Range: $300-V400

Not a renegade from the chest section but a George I period secretaire tallboy in walnut veneer. The top drawer front of the bottom chest falls forward to reveal secretaire fittings such as pigeonholes and small drawers for use as a writing piece. Otherwise the features are common to those of tallboys of the period i. e. herringbone cross banding, chamfered and reeded sides to the top half and a sunburst in the bottom drawers inlaid in boxwood and ebony.
Price Range: F250-E350
Value points: See section notes

A mahogany secretaire -bookcase of c. 1790 reflecting more of the Sheraton nomenclature in its squarer lines. The latticed glazed doors and simple top moulding reflect a more refined style. The top drawer of the chest section falls to reveal a secretaire. The feet are of the tapering, slightly splayed type with curved apron attributed to Hepplewhite/Sheraton but probably more simply in the then current taste.
Price Range: F400-Z500
Value points: See section notes Satinwood

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A Chippendale mahogany kneehole desk of exceptional quality, c. 1760. The front is of serpentine shape and the choice of veneers is extremely fine, showing pronounced figure.
The mouldings show considerable refinement. A cock bead is to be seen around the drawer edges and the shaping of the bracket feet is one typically attributed to the ‘Chippendale’ nomenclature.
Price Range: $1,000-$1,200
Value points: Fretted edges
Pronounced mouldings -
Bold sweep of front elevation

A Georgian partner’s desk with red tooled leather insert on the top. These mahogany partner’s desks continued to be made for a considerable period and have been reproduced for many years. The construction of the drawers, with cock beaded edges, and the top edge mouldings are in the same style as other pieces of the period, generally following the library tables of the end of the century.
Price Range: $250-$450
Value points: See section notes

A George II yew wood kneehole secretaire desk cross banded in mahogany. The deep top drawer front opens on a fall to form a secretaire fitted with pigeon holes and small drawers inside. The top is also veneered in yew and cross banded with mahogany.
Price Range: F400-F600
Value points: See section notes

A mahogany kneehole desk of c. 1750 with a broadly moulded top edge. The drawers have a lip moulding around the edge to project over the carcase edges when closed. The bottom moulding above the bracket feet ethos the shape of the top edge and the overall proportion is bold and pleasing. Price Range: $400-$500Value points: See section notes

A quality walnut Queen Anne period kneehole desk with top veneered in quartered pattern with herring-bone inlays. The drawers are cross banded and inlaid with herring-bone pattern. The door inside the knee hole opens to give access to more smaller drawers.
Price Range: $750-$1,000 Value points: See section notes

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Carlton House desk

This extremely elegant piece of writing furniture owes its name to the Prince of Wales’ grand London town house which used to stand on the present site of Carlton House Terrace, overlooking St James’s Park. A Carlton House desk is a typical Regency design: sleek, elegant, depending entirely on its shape with no added carving - all the embellishment is in the surface treatment.
A drawing for a very similar design appears in Hepplewhite’s second edition of The Cabinet-Maker’s London Book of Prices, published in 1794, six years after his death, and some writing tables or desks of this distinctive shape had already been made before that. In any event, all but three of the 20 illustrative plates in Hepplewhite’s book were signed by Thomas Shearer. Thomas Sheraton’s Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book (published in a series from 1791-94) also included drawings of a similar desk. Sheraton
described it as a lady’s drawing or writing table which should be made in two parts, in
satinwood or mahogany with a brass rim around the top part. The name ‘Carlton House table’ first appeared in Gillow of Lancaster’s cost books for 1796. But although it can apparently
be attributed to several furniture designers its form varies only in detail - it would seem that it became almost instantly a ‘classic’ piece.
Signs of authenticity of Carlton House Desks
1. Made in two parts, with well-matching veneer on top and base.
2. Free-standing design - the veneer should follow the outside curve in a continuous unbroken sweep around the back.
3. Some early Carlton House desks were made with `bamboo-ringed’ legs and tasselled tops set under the writing top: from c.1795 the construction is similar to library tables with legs continuing up to form the sides of the frame, set slightly proud on the corners.
4. Oak-lined drawers with cast brass bolt heads with rosettes, octagonal or circular small backplates, matching in design on small and large drawers.
5. Legs tapering on insides only - outside corners form right-angles with floor.
6. Small moulded lip running on line of division of top and base.
7. Light-coloured golden satinwood veneer from West Indies with good figuring - light-coloured Cuban ‘curl’ mahogany veneer, or speckled amboyna.
8. Inlaid or painted decoration.
9. Veneer of top surface slightly faded from sunlight.
10. Inset soft leather writing surface framed with cross-cut veneer banding.
Likely restoration and repair
11. New veneered top and slight
lack of proportion to central pigeon-hole section. Victorian version with higher back removed, new curving top added to give ‘classical Regency’ horizontal lines.
12. Corners slightly proud with legs set under writing top, indicates original legs broken or replaced with earlier design to add to rarity value.
13. Speckled veneer with inlaid decoration - could be amboyna but may be later Victorian cheaper ‘bird’s eye maple’ with machine-cut inlay.
14. Light-coloured carcase
wood, usually pine, with pine drawers, indicates later reproduction.
Construction and materials
A Carlton House desk or writing table is a D-shaped library table with an additional curved tier of drawers, pigeon holes and spaces for books. It is made in two parts: the table base and the D-shaped curving upper part, the back of which should be flat and only curved on the wings. The overall design, so typical of early Regency furniture, is composed of flat planes on the horizontal and stepped or curved lines on the vertical. They are large pieces of furniture, often measuring well over five feet in width, but because of their long
low lines, are not overpowering.
Detail
In that they were described as `ladies’ writing tables they are almost the only exception to the rule that writing and library furniture of the period was usually plain and dark.
Carlton House
desks could almost be termed frivolous were it not for their solidity and excellent craftsmanship. The grandest follow the French bureau-plat tendency to gilt mounts and ormolu, but the finest rely on delicate swags and foliate inlay and the dexterous use of contrasting veneers.
The late eighteenth century delight in hidden features occasionally shows itself in some of these desks where the central block of pigeon holes and drawers slides forward towards the writer. William IV period desks have a tendency to be over-ornate, and many Victorian furniture manufacturers could not leave a good design alone, but gave added height to the central back section, so that the stepped or concave curving sides appear weak and the horizontal line is broken.
Variations
These grand ’salon’ pieces had no country-made counterparts. The nearest being large rent tables, usually constructed without any superstructure, used in estate managers’ offices. There also exist many cross breeds between the high chiffonier and the Carlton
House desk, plainly made in solid mahogany, but in no way country pieces of furniture.
This period overlaps that of the many well-made designs for solid suburban homes, often simplified or adapted from grander pieces of furniture.
Left: a simpler version, c.1820, made in rosewood, with spindle-turned legs, lion’s mask handles to main drawers, inset leather writing surface and decorated with brass beading and gallery.
Reproductions
Nineteenth century
Once the Carlton House desk had joined the repertoire of English furniture, it was made continuously through to the end of the nineteenth century, particularly in the period c.1860-85 when there was a revival in popularity of both Regency styles and pale-coloured veneers. The Victorian tendency to alter the design has already been mentioned, and taller Carlton House desks were made for a considerable period, alongside the classic design.
The line between ‘late original’ and ‘early reproduction’ is almost impossible to define, except from the poorer quality of both materials and craftsmanship of the reproduction: some Edwardian copies were also made with painted decoration and cheaper ’simulated satinwood’ veneer, usually birch. Until relatively recently these writing desks have been out of favour, but now that their popularity is again increasing it has
become a commercial proposition to restore and refurbish many poorer-quality pieces so that they can take their place spuriously among the originals.
Price bands
Early nineteenth century, with simple decoration, $10,000-15,000.
(Highly decorated pieces of this age are more expensive.)
Ornate, high quality, satinwood copy, late nineteenth century, $7,000.
Rosewood, c.1820, $4,000- 6,000.

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