A Carlton House desk is a specific antique

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 ...

form within the more general

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 ...

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 George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...

) by

George Hepplewhite George Hepplewhite (1727? – 21 June 1786) was a cabinetmaker. He is regarded as having been one of the "big three" English furniture makers of the 18th century, along with Thomas Sheraton and Thomas Chippendale. There are no pieces of furnit ...

. It is named after

Carlton House Carlton House was a mansion in Westminster, best known as the town residence of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV. It faced the south side of Pall Mall, London, Pall Mall, and its gardens abutted St James's Park in the St James' ...

, which was at the time the

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

residence of the Prince, and sometimes is also known as a Carlton House writing table.

The desk resembles a normal writing table, but small drawers above the surface form a "U" shape around the user, instead of merely facing the user as in a typical bureau à gradin. Unlike other types of bureau à gradin, the Carlton House desk usually offers no pigeonholes. There are usually small slopes over each of the desktop drawers at the left and right ends of the "U" shape. Drawings of this type of desk were presented by Hepplewhite in his noted design book, the '' Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide'', and by

Thomas Sheraton Thomas Sheraton (1751 – 22 October 1806) was a furniture designer, one of the "big three" English furniture makers of the 18th century, along with Thomas Chippendale and George Hepplewhite. Sheraton gave his name to a style of furniture characte ...

in his own book of designs, ''The Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book'', thus ensuring its popularity.

References

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Bibliography

*Aronson, Joseph. ''The Encyclopedia of Furniture''. 3rd ed. New York: Crown Publishers, 1966. *Gloag, John. ''A Complete Dictionary of Furniture''. Woodstock, N.Y. : Overlook Press, 1991. *Nickerson, David. ''English Furniture of the Eighteenth Century''. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1963. Desks

See also

References

Bibliography