{{single source, date=February 2018 A games table desk is an antique

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

form which has a writing surface etched or veneered in the pattern of a given

board game A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...

. It also provides sufficient storage space for writing implements and a separate space for storing game accessories such as counters. It is often called a "games table" or game table, which leads to confusion with pieces of furniture (antique or modern) which are built specifically for gaming only, with no intention or provision for use as a desk.

History

With the gradual creation of specialized rooms in the homes of the

nobility Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. T ...

and of the richer members of society during the 18th century, specialized

furniture Furniture refers to objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., Stool (seat), stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (table (furniture), tables), storing items, working, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Furnitur ...

followed. Instead of having large halls which could be transformed quickly into a dining room, ballroom, or audience chamber (thanks to big, sturdy transportable furniture), the trend now was towards a large number of smaller rooms in which smaller and more delicate specialized furniture stayed in permanence. Just before the French Revolution furniture out-specialized itself. Only the extremely rich could afford to have items of furniture for every possible activity: a dresser for

cosmetics Cosmetics are substances that are intended for application to the body for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering appearance. They are mixtures of chemical compounds derived from either Natural product, natural source ...

, a commode for toiletry, a lady's desk for writing during most of the year and a lady's Fire screen desk for cold evenings, equivalent desks for the gentleman, a game table for

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

, another one for checkers, a

billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue stick, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . Cue sports, a category of stic ...

table, and so on. This is when furniture giving dual use or triple use became popular among those who were merely rich and could not afford having cabinet makers constantly making new items for their homes. One of the most popular of these combinations was the games table desk.

Variations

The games table desk has a great variety of forms. Like most of the desks of that period it was built on commission to whatever new design, or modification of an old design, the customer might want. Most of them have in common a double-sided top, covered on one side with a gaming board and on the other side with tooled leather or some other material suitable for placing paper on it and writing with a

quill A quill is a writing tool made from a moulted flight feather (preferably a primary wing-feather) of a large bird. Quills were used for writing with ink before the invention of the dip pen/metal-Nib (pen), nibbed pen, the fountain pen, and, event ...

. The top board is sometimes attached loosely and sometimes very securely to the main body of the desk, and it is sometimes hinged. Some desks have not one but several top boards, kept stacked on one another, each having a different board game design on it. File:Spelbord, 1700-tal - Hallwylska museet - 109842.tif, Games table top turned to plain side File:Spelbord, 1700-tal - Hallwylska museet - 109843.tif, Games table with chess and backgammon boards exposed

References

*De Reyniès, Nicole. Le Mobilier Domestique: Vocabulaire Typologique. Paris, Ministère de la Culture et de La Communication, 1987. Game equipment Desks

History

Variations

See also

References