What wood are most cylinder bureaux made from?

Mahogany, by a wide margin. It accounts for nearly half of all titles in the archive, and very often comes with inlay. After that the field spreads out: walnut and maple each appear in a modest run, satinwood in the Sheraton Revival group, and kingwood or rosewood on the French pieces. Padouk, yew, mulberry, pollard oak, burr elm, plum pudding mahogany and red walnut each show up once.

How old is a typical cylinder bureau?

The dated field runs from 1700 to 1920, but half the dating is a period word rather than a year. The single commonest entry in the whole archive is the bare phrase '19th Century'. After that come the 1900s, Edwardian, the 1890s and Victorian. Genuinely 18th-century pieces are a minority, with a handful labelled Georgian or Regency, and the tail runs into the 1910s.

Is a cylinder bureau the same as a roll top desk?

The closing action is the same, and nine titles in the archive use 'roll top' where others say 'cylinder'. A cylinder front can be a solid curved panel or a slatted one. A handful of the 18th-century entries call the slatted version a tambour, a flexible front of strips glued to canvas.

Do they come with a bookcase on top?

One in five does. The upper case is glazed or panelled and sits above the writing section, and some titles call it a cylinder cabinet bookcase instead. The other four in five stand alone as desks, either on legs or over a carcass of drawers.

Are French cylinder bureaux common on the site?

About one in nine of the archive is French, and the share is higher in current stock than in what has sold. These are the pieces with marble tops, ormolu mounts and kingwood or rosewood parquetry. Vernis Martin lacquer work appears three times, always on a French piece.

How many come up for sale each year?

Around nineteen a year across Sellingantiques, and 77 different dealers have handled one. That works out at a single example for most dealers who carry them, so they arrive one at a time rather than in runs.

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Antique Cylinder Bureau

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A writing desk closed by a curved quarter-round front that swings or slides back over the writing surface, keeping papers shut away without the swing of a fall-front.