large and impressive Carlton House desk, the leather writing surface which draws forward is backed by banks of drawers between doors, this structure returning to the front with curved sloping flaps above drawers. An inlaid mahogany gallery surmounts this arrangement. The back is sumptuously decorated with panels of marquetry presenting foliage, urns and swags and palm fronds in harewood and satinwood, all with original pen work, on a ground of fiddle back mahogany. The front, drawers and legs are similarly ornate and this desk stands on its original brass castors.
Carlton House desks are so named after Carlton House, the Prince Regents fabulous London residence, now torn down, for whom the first such desk was supposedly made.
English, circa 1890.