What timber are kidney desks usually made from?

Mahogany leads by a distance, named in 84 of 197 titles, very often with inlay. Burr walnut is the second timber, in 31 titles. Satinwood appears on a smaller group of more decorative desks, alongside occasional kingwood and rosewood. Those tend to sit in the upper half of the range.

How old is a typical kidney desk?

The dated field runs 1850 to 1930, and the weight falls late. The 1900s and Edwardian together make up well over a third of dated listings, with the 1920s and 1910s close behind. Victorian dates and the 1860s to 1890s account for a smaller share. Nothing in the archive is of 18th-century manufacture, so a title reading Georgian style or Queen Anne style is describing the design, not the date.

Why is the top shaped like that?

The waisted outline brings the writing surface round the sitter, the concave front hugging the chair. It was adopted for writing furniture in the later 18th century and revived from the mid-19th century onward. Because a kidney desk is finished on all sides, it was made to stand free in a room rather than face a wall.

Are kidney desks and kidney writing tables the same thing?

About one title in eight is sold as a table rather than a desk: writing tables, ladies' writing tables, side tables, dressing tables, and two called bureau plat. The difference is build. Table forms are lighter, with fewer drawers, while pedestal and twin-pedestal desks are heavier constructions and sit higher in the range.

Do kidney desks come with a leather writing surface?

Thirteen titles specify a leather top, one of them tooled. The inset leather panel is the ordinary treatment for the writing surface on this form. Applied metal is the exception. Only two listings in the sample mention ormolu mounts, and both are at the expensive end.

How often do kidney desks come up for sale?

Seventy-seven dealers have listed one on Sellingantiques, and around twenty-one come to market in a year. It's a form spread thinly across a wide dealer base rather than a few specialists. Pairs are the exception rather than the rule. A single matched pair appears across the whole sample.

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Antique Kidney Desks

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A kidney desk is a free-standing writing desk with a waisted, double-curved top and a shallow bank of drawers each side of a central kneehole, made to be written at from the concave front.