DESKS: OAK AND MAHOGANY BUREAUX AND BUREAUX CABINETS
About 1740 onwards
Now made in one piece, with or without an additional upper cabinet or bookcase. A piece of furniture which changed very little over the following 150 years and which has been widely reproduced for a further century.
OAK BUREAUX
Oak bureaux were made in large numbers by provincial [...]

DESKS: BUREAUX ON STANDS
About 1670-1760
A development of the medieval slope-top box which in the late 17thC was increasingly mounted on a stand, either fixed or as a separate entity. Its hinged flap slopes when closed, forming a flat writing-surface with a knee space below when open. The interior is fitted with small drawers and pigeon-holes [...]

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 [...]

DESKS: BUREAUX AND BUREAUX CABINETS
About 1690-1740
Walnut veneered two-part bureau, about 1700.
Acombination of the bureau on stand and the escritoire, having an upper desk section with a fitted interior mounted on a chest of drawers; can have a cabinet above with further interior fittings for ledgers, papers,
Initially made in two sections with applied ‘waist’ moulding around [...]

DESKS: KNEEHOLE
Kneehole desks were made in the 18th century about 1700`s-1780`s
Mahogany kneehole desk with bracket feet about 1760-1770,
A small and attractive piece, originally devised as a dressing-table, not a desk, but in appearance like a chest of drawers with a central recessed kneehole space backed by a cupboard. Occasionally a hinged top, lifting to reveal [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

ANTIQUE ENGLISH BUREAUX
Before antique bureaux in the Middle Ages many small portable oak desks were made consisting of a simple box with sloping hinged lid on which the owner could write and keep his papers inside. Towards the end of the 17th century this form of desk appears to have been also made on a [...]

Antique English Pedestal Desks
mahogany library or writing table - mahogany pedestal desk - kidney-shaped writing table or desk - burr yew pedestal desk on paw feet - nineteenth century mahogany pedestal desk - kidney-shaped desk of Sheraton design
Pedestal desks for study, library and office use do not really stem from the same origin as the [...]

Antique English Georgian Walnut and Mahogany Pedestal Desks.
Original pedestal desks - George III mahogany desk - George III provincial kneehole pedestal desk - Victorian oak desk with mahogany veneer - 18th Century walnut desk
The pedestal desk was not made until c.1765 when it can be seen in its grandest form  very large and ornate, and [...]