The cylinder desk is a form of Desk which ressembles a Bureau Mazarin or a Writing table equipped with small stacked shelves in front of the user's main work surface, and a revolving cylinder part which comes down to hide and lock up the working papers when the day is done. Like the Rolltop desk which was invented much later, the cylinder desk usually has a fixed work surface. This means that unlike a Secretary desk the paperwork does not have to be stored before shutting up the desk. Some designs however, have the capacity to slide out the desk surface a few inches to expand the available working area.
The cylinder desk is also called "bureau Kaunitz", since it is rumored that it was introduced in France in the first half of the 18th century by Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz, who was at that time the ambassador of the Habsburg Empire to the French court. At any rate the French court adopted this type with great enthusiasm, whatever its origins might be. The difficulty of producing wooden cylinder sections which would not warp over the years ensured that such desks were reserved for the rich and the very rich. A few variants of this form have slats instead of a one piece cylinder section.
References
- Aronson, Joseph. The Encyclopedia of Furniture.3rd edition. New York: Crown Publishers Inc., 1965.
- Boyce, Charles. Dictionary of Furniture. New York: Roundtable press book, 1985
- Forrest, Tim The Bulfinch Anatomy of Antique Furniture. London: Marshall editions, 1996
- Hinckley, F. Lewis. A Directory of Antique Furniture: The Authentic Classification of European and American Designs. New York: Bonanza Books, 1988.
- Oglesby, Catherine. French provincial decorative art. New York, Scribner, 1951.
- Payne, Christopher. Ed. Sotheby's Concise Encyclopedia of Furniture. London: Conran Octopus, 1989.
- Reyniès, Nicole de. Le mobilier domestique: Vocabulaire Typologique. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1987.
See also the list of desk forms and types.
