A bureau à gradin is an antique

desk A desk or bureau is a piece of furniture with a flat table-style work surface used in a school, office, home or the like for academic, professional or domestic activities such as reading, writing, or using equipment such as a computer. Desks oft ...

form resembling a

writing table A writing table (French ''bureau plat'') has a series of drawers directly under the surface of the table, to contain writing implements, so that it may serve as a desk. Antique versions have the usual divisions for the inkwell, the blotter and ...

with, in addition, one or several tiers of small drawers and pigeonholes built on part of the desktop surface. Usually the drawers and pigeonholes directly face the user, but they can also surround three sides of the desk, as is the case for the Carlton house desk form. A small, portable version is a bonheur du jour. In some cases the bureau à gradin has a second tier of drawers under the work surface, and thus looks like an advanced form of the bureau Mazarin or like a non-enclosed version of the cylinder desk, or the tambour desk. See also the

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 *Bible box *Bonheur du jour * Bureau à gradin *Bureau brisé * Bureau capucin * Bureau Mazarin *''Bureau plat'', see Writing table * But ...

References

*Souchal, Genevieve. ''French Eighteenth Century Furniture''. Translated by Simon Watson Taylor. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1963. *De Reyniès, Nicole. '' Le Mobilier Domestique: Vocabulaire Typologique''. Paris: Ministère de la Culture et de La Communication, 1987. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bureau a gradin Desks History of furniture de:Sekretär (Möbel)