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 [...]

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 [...]

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: 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; [...]

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 [...]