DESKS About 1810-1840
Classical period (known at the time as ‘Grecian’): Immigrant craftsmen - notably Lannuier in New York, Bouvier and Quervelle in Philadelphia -introduce French Empire style.
Mahogany secretaire-a-abattant, about 1815.
Desks embody features of the grand Napoleonic manner. Some are flat, leather-topped library tables, others are a new version of the secretary desk with a vertical [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

DESKS: CYLINDER AND TAMBOUR
About 1780 onwards
Both terms are used to describe any desk with a superstructure enclosed by a half- or quarter-round sliding lid which disappears into the structure when lifted. A cylinder top has a continuous smooth surface; a tambour is slatted. This type of desk originated in France a little earlier.
Early examples (about [...]

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 [...]

Fall Front Desks and Secretaires
As antique desks especially for writing grew in popularity in the 18th century, different styles were developed. The secretaire a abattant, a tall French writing desk, was first produced in the 1700s in Paris by the cabinet-maker, Jean-Francois Oeben.
The secretaire a abattant looked, from its flat-fronted exterior appearance, like an armoire, [...]