What is a secretaire abattant?

An upright Continental form with a vertical fall front over drawers or a cupboard below, rather than the sloping fall of the English bureau. It appears in twenty titles on Sellingantiques, part of a small Continental seam that also takes in escritoires and Dutch marquetry pieces.

How common are bureau bookcases?

A bookcase stage is mentioned in a quarter of all titles, which makes the two-part form a defining variant of the category. The single-carcase bureau still outnumbers it. Bookcase and secretaire bookcase entries sit toward the upper end of the range.

Which period do most listings fall in?

Georgian and 18th Century are the two labels that carry the category, together accounting for well over a third of everything dated. Edwardian is the next single block, typically inlaid. A scatter of 1920s and 1930s dates appears at the late end.

Why do so many listings give only a period label?

The dated field runs 1740 to 1930, but only 359 of 1,068 listings carry a clean year. The rest rely on a period label instead. Broad entries such as '19th Century' and '1800s' are common, and read as a bracket rather than a date. Only the 1750s breaks out as a decade at the early end.

Does inlay mean a later piece?

Inlay is the commonest decorative term in the archive, and 'Edwardian inlaid' is a pairing that recurs in dozens of titles. It also turns up on cylinder and roll-top desks, which cluster at the later Victorian and Edwardian end. Marquetry and satinwood inlay sit above plain mahogany surfaces in the range.

What unusual forms turn up?

The oddities appear once each: a child's bureau, a barrister's bureau, a bureau on stand doubling as lectern or rostrum, a metamorphic writing table and a double-sided tambour roll-top. Around 111 mahogany bureaux are listed on Sellingantiques in a year, and 177 different dealers have offered one, so the sweep is wide.

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Antique Mahogany Bureau

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A mahogany writing desk with a sloping or fall front that lets down onto lopers to make a writing surface, over drawers below and a stepped interior of small drawers and pigeonholes.