Antique Desks

Sheraton Antique Desks

Sheraton's desks and secretaries were often extremely beautiful, with many valuable features of a practical nature. His scrutoirs and ladies' writing-cabinets, of which he offered many designs, were delightful. They were inlaid and veneered in mahogany, satinwood, tulip-wood, etc. In 1793 he produced designs for secretaries with inlay, the lower portion consisting of a cupboard in place of the usual drawers.

Sheraton's inventions were often very ingenious. His bookcase-desks and writing-cabinets were fitted with small sliding doors, secret drawers, and various other clever devices.

Most of the bookcase-desks and secretaries now to be found in this country are post-Revolutionary, and many of them were made here. They were of various types, and ranged from the very plain to the very elaborate. There were veneered pieces with square tops, plain turned feet, and straight fronts; there were also beautiful creations of solid mahogany, with curved, serpentine, or block fronts, carved or inlaid ornament, brass handles, beautiful workmanship in-side, the broken arch at the top, and small ball-and claw feet. Naturally, while all these old secretaries are of value to the collector, their valuation is largely determined by the degree and purity of the style and ornament.

Bookcases in the upper portion, with wooden or glass doors, were commonest, but a few of the pieces had, in place of the bookcase, a cupboard, about two feet high, containing drawers, pigeonholes, etc. Occasionally a desk is to be found built like a bureau, with the top drawer, or a portion of it, opening out to form a desk.

After 1800 a few French Empire desks found their way to this country, and our domestic work was influenced by that style. The American-made secretaries became less graceful, and their chief beauty lay in the grain of the selected mahogany veneering. The opening desk top, instead of sloping up to cover the pigeonholes, was usually nearly flat, and the small drawers and pigeonholes were often placed above it, sometimes inside the bookcase doors.

Besides the secretaries there was a late type of desk which, though very rare, is interesting. It stood on slender legs, and had a tambour top, much like our modern roll top, covering a wealth of little drawers and pigeonholes.

Values in old desks and secretaries vary widely. In general, the block-front desks and chests of drawers are held in highest esteem-both the English pieces and the rarest pieces of American furniture of this character. As will be seen by consulting the illustrations, the average value for scrutoirs and desks lies between $200 and $300. The finer pieces -bureau-desks of the Classic Georgian period-may be worth from $5oo to $2,500. The more common forms of the late American secretary of mahogany veneer are worth from $ 100 to $200, according to condition and beauty of workmanship.