What is the most common Victorian desk?

The mahogany pedestal desk, by a wide margin. Roughly two fifths of titles carry the word pedestal, and mahogany appears in more titles than any other timber. After that come walnut and oak pedestals, then davenports, which account for about one in six pieces listed.

How does a partners desk differ from a pedestal desk?

A partners desk is a pedestal desk finished and fitted on both sides, so two people can sit facing each other and both have drawers. It shows up in the listings at 5ft and 6ft widths. Double-sided construction sits above single-sided in the range. A plain pedestal desk is usually finished at the back but has drawers on one side only.

What is a davenport desk?

A compact writing cabinet with a sloping lid over a bank of drawers running down one side. It emerged around 1800 and became a standard drawing-room piece through the Victorian decades. Listings name several variants: pop-up and piano-top davenports with rising stationery compartments, slide tops, freestanding examples finished on all four sides, and Tunbridge ware inlaid ones.

Which woods were used for Victorian desks?

Mahogany, walnut and oak carry the overwhelming bulk of the category, in that order. Burr walnut is a large group in its own right, and golden oak turns up mostly late in the period. The archive also throws up ash, pitch pine, satin birch, teak, yew, pollard oak, birdseye maple, satinwood, coromandel, padauk, thuya and amboyna.

Are Victorian desks always dated to a year?

No. Most listings on Sellingantiques simply say Victorian or 19th century rather than giving a year. Where a decade is stated, the 1860s is the busiest, followed by the 1880s, then the 1890s, 1870s and 1850s. Numbers thin sharply after 1900.

Do unusual forms of desk turn up?

They do, though sparingly. Kidney-shaped desks, Carlton House desks with a raised tier of drawers and pigeonholes, cylinder and roll-top desks, bonheurs du jour and ladies' writing desks all appear. Odder things surface too: a railway signalman's desk in pine, a Green Man carved oak pedestal desk, a harlequin davenport and a 'Jack in a Box' davenport.

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Antique Victorian Desks

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Victorian writing furniture, most often a mahogany pedestal desk with a leather-inset top and a kneehole between two banks of drawers, made for offices, libraries and studies.