Mahogany Pedestal Desk with Green Leather Top

• Victorian Period - The Victorian period of furniture and decorative arts design covers the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901. There was not one dominant style of furniture in the Victorian period. Designers used and modified many historical styles such as Gothic, Tudor, Elizabethan, English Rococo, Neoclassical and others, although use of some styles, such as English Rococo and Gothic tended to dominate the furniture manufacture of the period.
  
  The Victorian period was preceded by the Regency and William IV periods, and followed by the Edwardian period, named for Edward VII (1841 ? 1910) who was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India for the brief period from 1901 until his death in 1910.
• Figured - A descriptive term to describe the patterns in the grain of timber. An object may be described as "well figured" or "highly figured" if the grain on a section of the object is highly patterned, as with flame mahogany or burr walnut.
• Blind Tooling / Blind Tooled - Blind tooling is a technique used in the decoration of leather goods such as book covers, belts, and wallets. It involves the use of specialized tools to impress designs and patterns onto the surface of the leather without the use of added colour.
  
  The process involves the use of a variety of tools, including stamps, embossing tools, and finishing tools, which are used to create various textures and patterns on the leather surface. The tools are heated, and then pressed onto the leather, leaving an impression. The tools can be used to create designs that are simple or complex, with a variety of textures and patterns, including geometric shapes, florals, or scenes. The leather is then burnished to enhance the design and give it a smooth finish.
• Tooled - Decoration of a leather surface, usually by stamping the surface with a heated punch or wheel containing foliate or geometric designs. In blind tooling the surface of the punch or wheel is in direct contact with the leather, while in gold tooling, a ribbon of gold leaf is placed between the punch or wheel and the leather, and once they have been applied, the excess gold is brushed off, leaving only the design.
• Mahogany - Mahogany is a dense, close grained red-coloured timber from the West Indies and Central America. It was first imported into Europe in the the early 18th century and its use continued through the 19th century. It was popular for furniture making because of its strength, the wide boards available, the distinctive grain on some boards, termed flame mahogany and the rich warm colour of the timber when it was polished.. The "flame" was produced where a limb grew out from the trunk of the tree, and this timber was usually sliced into veneers for feature panels on doors, backs and cornices.
  
  Some terms used to describe mahogany relate to the country from which it originally came, such as "Cuban" mahogany, "Honduras" mahogany etc. However unless the wood has been tested the names assigned are more a selling feature, rather than a true indication of the timber's origin.
• Veneers - Veneers are thin sheets of well-figured timber that are glued under pressure to the surface of a cheaper timber for decorative effect, and then used in the making of carcase furniture.
  
  Early veneers were saw-cut so were relatively thick, (up to 2 mm) but is was realised that saw cutting was wasteful, as timber to the equivilent of the thickness of the saw was lot on each cut.
  
  A more efficient method was devised to slice the timber, either horizontally with a knife, or in a rotary lathe.
  
  Flame veneer, commonly found in mahogany or cedar furniture, is cut from the junction of the branches and main trunk. So-called fiddleback veneers, where the grain is crossed by a series of pronounced darker lines, is usually cut from the outer sections of the tree trunk.
  
  During the 17th and 18th centuries, and in much of the walnut marquetry furniture made during the latter part of the 19th century, the veneer was laid in quarters, each of the same grain, so that one half of the surface was the mirror image of the other.
  
  The use of veneer allows many other decorative effects to be employed, including stringing, feather banding, cross banding, and inlaid decorative panels in the piece. The carcase over which veneer is laid is usually of cheaper timber such as pine, oak or, sometimes in Australia during the first half of the 19th century, red cedar.
  
  The important thing to remember about veneers is that prior to about 1850 they were cut by hand, and were consequently quite thick - ranging up to about 2mm deep.
  
  From the mid-19th century veneers were cut by machines and were almost wafer-thin. This is a critical point when trying to judge the approximate age of veneered furniture.
• Pedestal Desk - A pedestal desk is a type of desk that consists of a large work surface supported by two pedestals or cabinets, one on either side. The pedestals are usually identical and contain drawers and cabinets for storage. The desk's design allows it to be placed in the centre of a room, as the back of the desk is usually finished with the same veneer as the front.
  
  Pedestal desks were popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, and were usually made from high-quality wood, such as cedar, mahogany, walnut or oak, and were decorated with intricate carvings and other decorative details. They were used by businessmen, politicians, and other professionals, and were considered a symbol of status and success.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• desks, period or age - Victorian 409
• desks, style or type - large antique partners / pedestal desks 167