Pivoting Roll Top Desk by Friedrich Soennecken

This is a magnificent, large mahogany pivoting roll top desk of the absolute best quality of German manufacture and design. With a rare drawer and cupboard pivot mechanism to the pedestals which effectively doubles the useable storage space to hand. The tambour top gives way to the original tooled leather writing surface and decorative brass gallery finishes off the top shelf. This desk is French polished to all sides and the crisply cast ormulu mounts are present at the rear also showing that extra effort gone into the construction. All the drawers are in lined in solid oak and the mechanism is in fine working order with key present. There is a makers label on the inside of the two pedestals which reads F. Soennecken Berlin, BONN, Leipzig. To describe this desk as exceptional in every respect would not do it justice. The desk has seen very little use in it's lifetime and consquently is in superb original condition.

Soennecken is a German office products manufacturer. Its products are well known in the Anglo-Saxon world, in North America, Australia and also India. Founded by Friedrich Soennecken in 1875, the name was registered as a trademark in 1905. Soennecken is the synonym for the development of the pen, binder and the punch. Due to bankruptcy, the trademark is owned by the BRANION EG since 1973. Today the enterprise offers a variety of office products.

Friedrich Soennecken (September 20, 1848 – July 2, 1919), was an entrepreneur and inventor. He was the founder of Soennecken, a German office supplier.

Soennecken was born in Iserlohn-Dröschede, Sauerland in 1848, the son of a blacksmith. On May 27, 1875 he founded the F. Soennecken Verlag, a commercial enterprise in Remscheid, Westphalia. His main invention is the "round writing" style of calligraphy and the pen nib associated with it.[1] Round writing was designed to be a visually appealing, standardized style of penmanship which was easy to learn and execute, and Soennecken published books on the topic in several languages.[2]

In 1888, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote to a friend that he had finally discovered both a quality paper to write on and a quality pen from Germany: Soenneckens Rundschrift Federhalter.

Soennecken also introduced the two-hole punch and the ring binder. In 1876 he and his company relocated to Poppelsdorf, near Bonn, to be closer to the University which later awarded him the honorary title Dr. med. h. c..

Soennecken died in Bonn in 1919.

Inventions

Ink container with stable stand (invented as an apprentice)

A style of writing with the round tip of the feather of a pen nib (1860)

Round writing, model of our current script

Soennecken, Friedrich (1879). Methodical Text Book to Round Writing. A. Eltzbacher & Co.

An early type of binders which later became the Soennecken file (1886)

The hole punch

The ring binder, later symbolically part of the logo of Soennecken

Soennecken Timeline

1883: Soennecken employs 30 workers and packman, acquisition of area from Poppelsdorf, now Bonn

1887: extension of the factory

1896: A new building is inaugurated

1898: New building for furniture production

1903/1904: Completion furniture factory Soenneckenfeld

1909: New building in Poppelsdorf: Soenneckenfeld

1910: Participation at the World's Fair Brussels with awards

1911: Soenneckens son, Engineer Alfred Soennecken is active in the company

Purchase of Shannon Zeiss registration department company Berlin

1913 export branches in Berlin, Leipzig, Amsterdam, Antwerp and Paris

72,000 goods packages are sent into all world

Purchase of the feather/spring factory Schaper in Iserlohn

1919: Death of Friedrich Soennecken

1920s: Enterprise employs approx. 1000 coworkers

1973: bankruptcy

1983: BRANION EG buys the exclusive trademark rights

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