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The fall-front desk can be considered the cousin of the
The fall-front desk can be considered the cousin of the secretary desk
A secretary desk or escritoire is made of a base of wide drawers topped by a desk with a hinged desktop surface, which is in turn topped by a bookcase usually closed with a pair of doors, often made of glass. The whole is usually a single, tall ...
. Both have a main working surface or desktop that does double duty as a cover to seal up papers and other items located in small shelves or small drawers placed one on top of the other in front of the user. Thus, all working papers, documents and other items have to be stored before the desk
A desk or bureau is a piece of furniture with a flat table (furniture), table-style work surface used in a school, office, home or the like for academic, professional or domestic activities such as reading (activity), reading, writing, or using ...
is closed.
Unlike the secretary desk, the fall-front desk's desktop panel is perfectly vertical when in its closed position. Often, there are no additional shelves or drawers above the section that is enclosed by the desktop. Thus, the fall-front desk is identical in shape to a Bargueño desk
In cabinetry, the bargueño (or vargueño, both ; meaning "from Bargas") is a form of portable desk, made up of two chests, the bottom one usually having drawers (called a ''taquillón'') and the top one having a hinged desk surface which also ...
, which would have been placed on a stand of drawers, or more precisely to the form known as desk on a chest or as "chest-on chest".
The fall-front desk is also called a drop-front desk, and sometimes also a drop-lid desk. Scrutoire and scriptoire are ancient variations. The "secrétaire à abattant" is a nearly identical form, but usually in a French style such as Louis XV
Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reache ...
, Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
, etc. In the early 19th century, Shaker communities produced a tall and plain variation that is often known as a "cupboard desk".
See also
*List of desk forms and types
This is a list of different types and forms of desks.
Desk forms and types
*Armoire desk
*Bargueño desk
* Bible box
* Bonheur du jour
*Bureau à gradin
* Bureau brisé
* Bureau capucin
*Bureau Mazarin
*''Bureau plat'', see Writing table
* Butl ...
.
References
*Aronson, Joseph. The Encyclopedia of Furniture. 3rd ed. New York: Crown Publishers, 1966. *Boyce, Charles. Dictionary of Furniture. 2nd ed. New York: Roundtable Press Book, 2001. *Charron, Andy. Desks: Outstanding Projects from America's Best Craftsmen. Taunton press, 2000. pp. 88–107. *Gloag, John. A Complete Dictionary of Furniture. Woodstock, N.Y. : Overlook Press, 1991. *Moser,Thomas. Measured Shop Drawings for American Furniture. New York: Sterling Publishing Inc., 1985. *Romand, Didier. L'argus des meubles. Paris: Balland, 1976. *Souchal, Genevieve. French Eighteenth Century Furniture. Translated by Simon Watson Taylor. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1963.External links
* Desks {{furniture-stub