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 [...]

DESKS  Victorian, Edwardian Pedestal
A handsome burr walnut pedestal desk with superstructure including a sloping writing surface, drawers and a turned baluster gallery. A type of desk once rather despised for its superstructure, which was often
removed to convert the piece into a flat-topped pedestal desk of more Georgian appearance. Now, however, the form is coming into [...]

17th Century French, Italian and Spanish Desks about 1630
Byzantine: Desks combining flat surfaces with sloped lecterns fairly commonplace.
Romanesque: The few literate people (mainly monks) used a writing-slope – often a portable box with hinged, slanted lid, but sometimes on a fixed base. A desk dating from about  pieces of furniture designed specifically for writing have [...]

19th Century French and Italian Desks 1800-1850
Dutch mahogany secretaire-a-abattant made in Empire style.
Consulat and Empire: The brief period (1799-1804) known by Napoleon’s title of Consul, marks transition between slightly anaemic, late-Louis XVI/ Directoire style and full-blooded grandeur of Empire (1804-15), created for Napoleon by Percier and Fontaine and simplified for bourgeoisie by Mesangere’s designs, serialized [...]

DESKS: BONHEURS DU OURS AN CHEVERETS
About 1770-1915
Lion’s mask handles on 19thC pedestal desk.
A satinwood bonheur du jour with simple inlaid decoration.
Handles: Generally very simple brass swan-neck in 18thC, turned wooden knobs in 19th, joined by a variety of metal ring, bail or drop handles around 1870, and horizontal wooden pulls around 1900.
Generally skeleton escutcheons; sometimes [...]

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 [...]