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: 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: SECRETAIRES AND SECRETAIRE BOOKCASES
About 1710-1830
Known in the 18thC as a secretary, this piece of furniture appears as a chest of drawers with a full-width, deep, top drawer fitted like a bureau with small drawers, pigeon-holes and cupboards. The drawer pulls half out and its front drops down to form a writing-surface.
Frequently a single bookcase/display [...]

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 [...]