Bureau Cabinets And Secretaries Or Desks

Writing furniture of this period was varied in character. It may be classified under five types. First, there was the writing cabinet with drawers below, standing on bun or straight bracket feet. The whole front of the upper portion was a single falling flap, hinged at the bottom and showing, when open, drawers and pigeon-holes. The top was sometimes single hooded, sometimes straight with an ovolo frieze below the cornice (Plate III, p. 72).

The second type was practically the secretary or bureau-bookcase, having drawers in the lower part surmounted by a slant-top desk, hinged at the bottom of the flap. The upper cabinet portion, which showed a tendency to become higher towards the end of the century to suit the greater height of the rooms, generally had a double hooded top, sometimes with and sometimes without vase-shaped finials at the corners and centre (Key IV, 2). The two doors had either mirror or wood panels with cyma and semi-circle heads as in Plate IX, p. 112. Above the slant top there were usually sliding candle brackets and there were sliding supports for the lid when open. This type of desk or secretary really belongs to the transition between the William and Mary and Queen Anne periods and continued to be made, usually with the modification of a straight top, till about 1730.

A third type was the narrow slant top desk on cup-turned legs with flat-shaped stretchers and bun feet like the piece shown in Fig. 7. Sometimes it was surmounted with a tall double-hooded cabinet with finial ornaments.

The fourth sort was the knee-hole secretary with a recess in the middle to make room for the knees of the writer. At the sides were tiers of drawers. The desk part either opened straight or with a slant flap, and there was usually no superstructure. Short cup-turned legs, shaped flat stretchers and bun feet were used or else straight bracket feet.

The fifth kind was the gate-legged desk having a slant flap opening on hinges at the bottom, six spindleturned legs braced by serpentine flat stretchers at their shoulders and flat-shaped stretchers just above the feet. The two central legs swung out like the legs of a gate table to support the flap when the desk was opened. All the usual decorative processes were applied to secretaries and bureau-cabinets or bookcases.

Fig. 7. Small Secretary with Typical Inverted Cup Legs and Shaped Flat Stretchers. By Courtesy of Mr. R. W. Lehne, Philadelphia.

Cupboards

In this period the cupboards of earlier days were largely superseded by chests of drawers, cabinets and highboys. For the accommodation of china, the collecting of which had become fashionable, a piece of furniture was devised, for the description of which see "Cabinets" and Key III, 2. The three-cornered cupboard also made its appearance at the end of the period, having straight or broken pediment top, one or two doors above and one or two below, with occasionally a drawer between. Cupboards on six-legged stands are sometimes met with.