First let me apologize to those of you that receive my blog via e-mail. There was an error that repeated. The word was spelled correctly; it was just the wrong word. I spotted it just after posting the blog. Seems I can’t go back and un-send a post. The error made it through the WordPress proofread tool and the grammar checker in Word.
Moving on…
The last auction I attended not only had three more butler’s desks but it had a fair number of secret compartments. Maybe not all secret. Some are more concealed than secret. Remember this desk?
From the last auction.
Looking at the gallery, you can see the document boxes on either side of the prospect door without any obvious way to open the boxes:
Document boxes with no pulls or obvious way in.
Looking within the prospect reveals nothing of use:
Although it looks like there might have been something in here once, it’s not here now.
Removing the drawer provides the answer:
There’s a hole here with a thumb catch within.
That’s how you get to the document box contents.
Same on the left.
Next is in this butler’s desk:
Large furniture with secrets.
Nothing obvious here.
Overextend the gallery drawer and see an odd cutout from above.
Prospect door is unhinged and un-handled.
Prospect door opens like a garage door or door on a barrister’s bookcase.
Not really a secret but certainly not obvious.
Now we move on the this more-or-less traditional slant front desk:
Nice ball and claw feet.
A quick glance at the gallery reveals nothing.
Clues: 1. Looks like a box in a box. 2. Pigeon hole doesn’t seem deep enough.
The box pulls out. Note: the front half of the box is walnut and the back is poplar. Dovetailed, though.
There be drawers in the back of the box. Note the recess for the spring latch on the top of the box. You can also see part of the hole for releasing the latch.
The prospect without its insert. Spring latch is visible.
Another desk with bookshelf:
Just a bit fancier.
A fancy gallery.
Decorated prospect door.
A little shallow and a box in a box. Wiggles a bit when pushed and pulled.
This box is shallower than the previous desk
because the drawers are in the deck and not the insert.
There was something going on with a latch and a horizontal divider that I couldn’t figure out:
It remains a secret.
The gallery was rapidly filling with patrons drinking free moderately priced white wine and scarfing steamed shrimp and crab cake sliders. The wine auction was about to start and I had to go.
Finally, there was this handsome desk:
They just keep getting better looking.
with the requisite gallery.
But, alas, the secret is long gone.
Now that I have resolved my DSL connectivity issues, blogs should be coming more regularly. I hope.