Mar ch, 1917 
25 
Above is a tambour desk open and closed. The name is derived from the sliding doors which made this desk the ancestor of our 
modern roll top. The wood is mahogany with satinwood inlay. It is Heppelwhite in design, made in America in the late 18<ft Century 
wonders with the battered derelicts of the 
houses of yesterday by making the old 
pieces to shine forth in their glory anew; 
all of which lends encouragement to the 
collector and new zest to his traditional 
delight in the “hunt.” 
Upon first thought, a collection of desks 
might seem like a mastodonian assemblage; 
so it would be, if the collector placed them 
all in a row or all in a single room. But 
the house of today can accommodate—in¬ 
deed, finds necessary—more than a single 
desk in its furnishings. And so the collector 
of old furniture has another impetus in his 
search, a utilitarian one. Under the term 
of desk we may include the various 
A-.' escritoires, bureau-bookcases (book¬ 
case-bureaux) and the secretaires. 
All of these, in common with our 
cabinets, tail-boys and so on had their 
origin in the chest or coffer of the 
Middle Ages. To the bottom of the 
chest came to be added a drawer. 
Next, side doors instead of a top lid 
came into fashion, and in this man¬ 
ner followed the many steps that 
led to the development of the piece 
of furniture we designate, for con¬ 
venience, the desk. 
It is not possible to tell just when the 
earliest desks were made. The desk is 
{Continued on page 68) 
photograph by Wallace 
A fine William and Mary escritoire was 
made with a simple hood top in burr 
walnut inlaid with seaweed marquetry 
Photograph by Wallace 
An example of an old Queen Anne escri¬ 
toire in robin egg lacquer on walnut legs. 
The interior is cream lacquer. 1760 
preferences, it was found that a 
greater number were interested in old 
furniture than in any one other sub¬ 
ject. This fact is not strange, when 
one comes to consider the utilitarian 
phase. Generally, the collector of old 
furniture starts in with the chance 
possession of two or three antique bits 
which, by inspiring interest and ap¬ 
preciation, lead him to wish to bring 
the other house-furnishings into har¬ 
mony with the loveliness of the old 
pieces. Few collectors of antique 
furniture, of course, are without homes of 
their own, or the modern substitute—the 
long-lease apartment. The skill of the mod¬ 
ern restorer of old furniture accomplishes 
The block front style of desk was also made in 
Rhode Island in the ikth Century without the 
top section. Mahogany has been used 
