Rolltop Desk on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
A rolltop desk is a 19th-century reworking of the pedestal desk with, in addition, a series of stacked compartments, shelves, drawers and nooks in front of the user, much like the bureau à gradin or the Carlton House desk. In contrast to these, the compartments and the desktop surface of a rolltop desk can be covered by means of a ''tambour'' consisting of linked wooden slats that roll or slide through slots in the raised sides of the desk. In that, it is a descendant in function, and partly in form, of the cylinder desk of the 18th century. It is a relative of the tambour desk, whose slats retract horizontally rather than vertically.
Jean-François Oeben is sometimes credited with designing the original rolltop desk around 1760, however his Bureau du Roi (completed by Jean Henri Riesener after Oeben's death) was a cylinder desk. The US Patent Office issued a patent for the first American-made rolltop desk to Abner Cutler of Buffalo, NY in 1882.
File:Rolltop desk.JPG, Typical rolltop desk
File:Side-view sketch of rolltop desk.png
File:Rolltop desk sketch.jpg
A rolltop desk is a 19th-century reworking of the pedestal desk with, in addition, a series of stacked compartments, shelves, drawers and nooks in front of the user, much like the bureau à gradin or the Carlton House desk. In contrast to these, the compartments and the desktop surface of a rolltop desk can be covered by means of a ''tambour'' consisting of linked wooden slats that roll or slide through slots in the raised sides of the desk. In that, it is a descendant in function, and partly in form, of the cylinder desk of the 18th century. It is a relative of the tambour desk, whose slats retract horizontally rather than vertically.
Jean-François Oeben is sometimes credited with designing the original rolltop desk around 1760, however his Bureau du Roi (completed by Jean Henri Riesener after Oeben's death) was a cylinder desk. The US Patent Office issued a patent for the first American-made rolltop desk to Abner Cutler of Buffalo, NY in 1882.
Production
Unlike the cylinder desk, the rolltop desk could be mass-produced rather easily since the simple wooden slats could be turned out very fast in a uniform way. In contrast, the wooden section of a cylinder had to be treated with great pains to keep its form perfectly over time, lest it warp or bend, and make it impossible to retract or extend. The wooden slats of the rolltop's tambour were usually joined together by being all attached to a cloth or leather foundation, and were thus less influenced by the problems which plagued the cylinder desk.Usage
The rolltop desk was the mainstay of the small or medium-sizedoffice
An office is a space where the employees of an organization perform Business administration, administrative Work (human activity), work in order to support and realize the various goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a po ...
at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th.
Because it was produced in vast numbers and at varying levels of quality, the rolltop desk is popular in the antique market. It is usually expensive especially if the wood used is expensive. It is also popular amongst set decorator
The set decorator is the head of the set decoration department in the film and television industry, responsible for selecting, designing, fabricating, and sourcing the " set dressing" elements of each set in a Feature Film, Television, or New Med ...
s who want to recreate the ambience of an office of the late 19th or early 20th century.
Gallery
See also
*List of desk forms and types
This is a list of different types and forms of desks.
Desk forms and types
* Armoire desk
* Bargueño desk
* Bench desk
* Bible box
* Bonheur du jour
* Bureau à gradin
* Bureau brisé
* Bureau capucin
* Bureau Mazarin
*''Bureau plat'', see W ...
* A. Cutler & Son
References
{{reflist *Baumert, Kenneth. "Building a rolltop desk: Interlocking slats form an all-wood tambour." ''Fine Woodworking''. Volume 79. December 1989. pp. 48–53. *Gloag, John. ''A Complete Dictionary of Furniture.'' Woodstock, N.Y. : Overlook Press, 1991. Desks History of furniture