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A rolltop desk is a 19th-century reworking of the
pedestal desk A pedestal desk or a ''tanker desk'' is usually a large, flat, free-standing desk made of a simple rectangular working surface resting on two pedestals or small cabinets of stacked drawers of one or two sizes, with plinths around the bases. Oft ...
with, in addition, a series of stacked compartments, shelves, drawers and nooks in front of the user, much like the
bureau à gradin A bureau à gradin is an antique desk form resembling a writing table with, in addition, one or several tiers of small drawers and pigeonholes built on part of the desktop surface. Usually the drawers and pigeonholes directly face the user, but the ...
or the
Carlton House desk A Carlton House desk is a specific antique desk form within the more general bureau à gradin form. This form of desk is supposed to have been designed in the 18th century for the Prince of Wales (who later became George IV) by George Hepplewhite. I ...
. In contrast to these, the compartments and the desktop surface of a rolltop desk can be covered by means of a ''tambour'' consisting of linked wooden slats that roll or slide through slots in the raised sides of the desk. In that, it is a descendant in function, and partly in form, of the
cylinder desk The cylinder desk is a desk that resembles a Bureau Mazarin or a writing table equipped with small stacked shelves in front of the user's main work surface, and a revolving cylinder part that comes down to hide and lock up the working papers when ...
of the 18th century. It is a relative of the
tambour desk A tambour desk is a desk with desktop-based drawers and pigeonholes, in a way resembling bureau à gradin. The small drawers and nooks are covered, when required, by reeded or slatted shutters, ''tambours'', which usually retract in the two sides ...
, whose slats retract horizontally rather than vertically. The rolltop desk was re-invented by Jacob Alles in Jasper, Indiana in 1879. "About 1760 Jean-François Oeben designed a new type of bureau: the original rolltop desk. The writing area can be covered by a shutter made of flexible slats, which is rolled round a cylinder hidden behind the top tier of drawers. In the Château de Versailles is found the most famous example of this type of desk, the "bureau du roi," which was begun by Oeben in 1760 and finished by Riesener. Riesener made several rolltop desks; the one for Thierrry de Ville d'Avray indicates that the
Louis XV style The Louis XV style or ''Louis Quinze'' (, ) is a style of architecture and decorative arts which appeared during the reign of Louis XV. From 1710 until about 1730, a period known as the Régence, it was largely an extension of the Louis XIV style ...
was not yet regarded as outmoded in the 1780s".https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/rolltop-desk


Production

Unlike the cylinder desk, the rolltop desk could be mass-produced rather easily since the simple wooden slats could be turned out very fast in a uniform way. In contrast, the wooden section of a cylinder had to be treated with great pains to keep its form perfectly over time, lest it warp or bend, and make it impossible to retract or extend. The wooden slats of the rolltop's tambour were usually joined together by being all attached to a cloth or leather foundation, and were thus less influenced by the problems which plagued the cylinder desk.


Usage

The rolltop desk was the mainstay of the small or medium-sized
office An office is a space where an Organization, organization's employees perform Business administration, administrative Work (human activity), work in order to support and realize objects and Goals, plans, action theory, goals of the organizati ...
at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. Because it was produced in vast numbers and at varying levels of quality, the rolltop desk is popular in the antique market. It is usually expensive especially if the wood used is expensive. It is also popular amongst
set decorator The set decorator is the head of the set decoration department in the film and television industry, responsible for selecting, designing, fabricating, and sourcing the "set dressing" elements of each set in a Feature Film, Television, or New Media ...
s who want to recreate the ambience of an office of the late 19th or early 20th century.


Gallery

File:Rolltop desk.JPG, Typical rolltop desk File:Side-view sketch of rolltop desk.png File:Rolltop desk sketch.jpg


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 ...
* A. Cutler & Son


References

{{reflist *Baumert, Kenneth. "Building a rolltop desk: Interlocking slats form an all-wood tambour." ''Fine Woodworking''. Volume 79. December 1989. pp. 48–53. *Gloag, John. ''A Complete Dictionary of Furniture.'' Woodstock, N.Y. : Overlook Press, 1991. Desks History of furniture