September, 19 2 1 
FURNITURE FROM 
31 
SECRET 
FRANCE 
High Romance Is Hidden in This Cabinetwork That Turns 
Out Different from What It Seems 
GARDNER TEALL 
W HAT would the world of romance be 
without its haunted houses, its secret 
chambers with entrances hidden by 
panels to give egress only to those who pos¬ 
sessed knowledge of the “Open Sesame”! 
Horace Walpole, Sir Walter Scott, Mrs. 
Radcliffe, Bulwer-Lytton, Mrs. Ainsworth, 
Alexander Dumas, Victor Hugo, La Fanu— 
how could they have gotten along without 
these mysteries! Can you imagine “Peveril 
of the Peak” without its sliding panel or 
“Woodstock” without the famous “trick” 
picture ? 
But architecture does not pre-empt con¬ 
trivances that deepen mysteries. Furniture 
likewise creeps into literature with secret 
drawers, hidden receptacles, and other enter¬ 
taining devices. Where else could the Muses 
have secreted the long-lost wills that should 
turn up in time to save the dowager-countess 
from taking in washing, or in time to con¬ 
front the villainous foreclosure of the excru¬ 
ciating chattel-mortgage? I think half the 
joy in acquiring an old desk is the hope that 
one will come across a secret compartment 
wherein some long forgotten treasure will be 
hidden away,—La Simonetta’s necklace, Pe- 
trach’s signet, Montaigne’s dial, Richelieu’s 
ring, or Shakespeare’s diary, even Dr. John¬ 
son’s spectacles, or William Pitt’s snuffbox. 
The upper drawers of this Louis XV marquetry desk 
are locked from the inside by a secret device which is 
concealed under a sliding panel 
At any rate comfort is to be gleaned from the 
fact that hiding-places in furniture were far 
more common than secret rooms or haunted 
houses. 
The Italian Renaissance furniture makers 
occasionally provided secret receptacles and 
these are also to be found in English Jaco¬ 
bean furniture and in the Spanish and 
Portuguese furniture which Charles II’s 
queen, Catherine of Braganza, brought with 
her from Portugal to England. Then, the 
huge carved English bedsteads of the 16th 
and of the 17th Century often were fitted 
with secret receptacles. Chippendale de¬ 
vised bureau bookcases with drop-down 
fronts revealing secret drawers; Hepple- 
white, Shearer, Darley and Gillow also em¬ 
ployed concealed receptacles, while Sheraton 
was a veritable past-master in the art of 
fitting furniture with intricate hiding-places 
and ingenious devices. In his “Cabinet¬ 
maker’s and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book”, 
published in 1792, Sheraton pictures what 
he calls a Harlequin Pembroke Table “very 
suitable to a lady”, a table which is fitted 
with so many mechanical devices (secret 
drawers, secret flaps, etc.), that the name 
“Harlequin” was given it as suggested by 
the transformations achieved by mechanism 
in Harlequin exhibitions. Sheraton also 
shows a desk of which he says “the orna¬ 
mented frieze under the cornice is, in reality, a 
drawer when the bolt of the fall lock is re¬ 
leased.” Then there are tables concealing ex- 
(Continued on page 66) 
When closed, this 
Louis XVI secre¬ 
taire resembles a 
chiffonier. It is 
of burl walnut 
with gilt bronze 
handles and locks 
and a gray mar¬ 
ble top 
Opened, the secre¬ 
taire is revealed. 
There are seven 
drawers inside, 
an unusual num¬ 
ber for this type 
of piece; one of 
them is used for 
an inkwell 
