Mid 19th. Century Burr Walnut Davenport Desk

A particularly good mid-19th. Century Burr Walnut Davenport with a galleried hinged top fitted for pens and inks above a hinged lid revealing small drawers to the satinwood interior, the main body with four drawers to the right hand side and four false drawers to the left hand side, the desk section supported on crisply carved columns and the whole raised on casters.

Circa1860 Price :£ 3,350-00p.

H:34.8”, 87 cms, W:22.4”, 56 cms, D:23.2”, 58 cms.

Note: the exceptional figuring and grain of the burr Walnut make this a rare example and are a testimony to the superb quality of this desk.

A Davenport desk, (sometimes originally known as a Devonport desk[1]) is a small desk with an inclined lifting desktop attached with hinges to the back of the body. Lifting the desktop accesses a large compartment with storage space for paper and other writing implements, and smaller spaces in the forms of small drawers and pigeonholes. The Davenport has drawers on one of its sides, which are sometimes concealed by a panel. This stack of side drawers holds up the back of the desk and most of its weight.

The front of the desk stands on thick legs or pillars which are often highly carved, Davenport desks of the 19th century had a variety of different leg designs.[2]

The desk shape is distinctive; its top part resembles an antique school desk while the bottom is like one of the two drawer-pedestals of a pedestal desk turned sideways. The addition of the two legs in front completes the effect.

This desk owes its name to a Captain Josiah Davenport (1771–1836) who was reputedly the first to commission the design, from Gillows of Lancaster, near the end of the 18th century. In a sense then it could also be considered a Campaign desk though there are no records indicating if Captain Davenport was in the British Army or the Royal Navy.[3] Josiah Davenport had a ship named the Cleopatra and he was a merchant mariner.

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