Bureau drawer

“ At a later period, the chest was placed on a frame of short square legs. The next development was the addition of a long drawer below the chest. Another drawer was added, and another, until this piece of furniture gradually became, instead of a simple box or trunk, a “chest-of-drawers,” a “chest-with-drawers,” a “nest-of-drawers,” a “case-of-drawers,” a “press,” a “cupboard-press,” etc., etc. The bureau, or desk, or “screetore,” is another development; and, of course, the cabinet in its simplest form is nothing but a chest-of-drawers with shelves inside shut in by doors. ”

“ The old-fashioned rounds or rungs of chairs, now so seldom seen, were a great aid to strength and durability.
I have already remarked that when a drawer in a bureau table is troublesome by continually sticking or catching, take it out, find where it rubs, and plane away the obtrusive portion. If it is made of badly seasoned, green, warping wood, nail across it strips of tin. To which I add that doors of closets, cabinets, &c., which are shrunk must have strips of wood glued to their edges. In some cases strips of paper will do as a temporary substitute. ”

“ The now familiar bureau with bookcase above, and drop-down, sloping front covering drawers and recesses, dates from this time. The escutcheon of the lac cabinet is illustrated in detail as a tailpiece to this chapter to show the particular style of work found on the locks and hinges and drawer-handles of pieces of this nature. As has{153} been said before, it is especially useful to the collector to make himself thoroughly familiar with these details of the various periods. ”

“ The bureaus have the top drawer of the body projecting beyond the three lower drawers, and supported by the pillars at the sides. This and the [57] shallow tier of small drawers, and the back piece are typical features of the Empire bureau, which may have the rosette and ring handle or the knob of brass or glass.
Illus. 43.—Bureau, 1815-1820.
The toilet conveniences of our ancestors seem to our eyes most inadequate, and it is impossible that a very free use of water was customary, with the tiny bowls and pitchers which were used and the small and inconvenient washstands. ”

“ Daniels' direction. Good morning." And returning our bows with one singularly impressive for all its elegant carelessness, he at once withdrew.
Mrs. Daniels took one long deep breath and came from the bureau. Instantly Mr. Gryce stooped and pulled out the drawer she had so visibly protected. A white towel met our eyes, spread neatly out at its full length. Lifting it, we looked beneath. A carefully folded dress of dark blue silk, to all appearance elegantly made, confronted our rather eager eyes. ”

“ This secretary is generous in secret compartments, of which there are six. The centre panel of the cabinet is the front of a drawer, locked by a concealed spring, and at the back of this drawer are two secret drawers; beneath it, by sliding a thin piece of mahogany, another drawer is disclosed; a fourth is at the top, behind a small drawer, and at each end of the curved drawers is a secret drawer. ”

“ It was the portrait of a woman, handsome, haughty and alluring; a modern beauty, with eyes of fire burning beneath high piled locks of jetty blackness, that were only relieved from being too intense by the scarlet hood of an opera cloak, that was drawn over them. ”

“ There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the two first with my linen, and, as I had still much to pack away, I was naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There was only once thing in it, but I am sure that you would never guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. ”

“ In all the desks shown, the pillars at each side of the middle door in the interior pull out as drawers. These were supposed to be secret drawers. Often the little arched pieces above the pigeonholes are drawer fronts. The middle compartment is sometimes a drawer, or if it has a door, behind this door is a drawer which, when taken entirely out, proves to have a secret drawer opening from its back. Occasionally an opening to a secret compartment is found in the back of the desk. ”

“ The chief objection to card cabinets or drawers is the insurmountable one of limitation to public use being fixed by the number of drawers or cabinets. With drawers in a counter front one consulter monopolises one drawer, while with tiers of three or four drawers in cabinet form never more than two persons can use it with any comfort. The exposure of only one title at a time is another serious drawback, while the peculiar daintiness of touch requisite for the proper manipulation of the cards makes the use of the catalogue a labour and a perplexity to working people with hardened finger-tips. ”

“ The English-speaking people of the 18th century were amazingly fond of pieces of furniture which served a double or triple purpose. The bureau—the word is the French generic appellation for a desk—derives its name from the material with which it was originally covered (Fr. bure, woollen cloth) . It consists of an upright carcass sloping inward at the top, and provided with long drawers below. The upper part is fitted with small drawers and pigeon-holes, and often with secret places, and the writing space is formed by a hinged slab supported on runners ”

“ Our ordinary way in and out of the place is by the door of the outer office leading into the corridor, and we first pass through the usual lifting flap in the barrier. The door leading from the inner office to the corridor is always kept locked on the inside, and I don't suppose I unlock it once in three months. It has not been unlocked all the morning. The drawer in which the missing drawings were kept, and in which I saw them at ten o'clock this morning, is at the place marked D—it is a large chest of shallow drawers, in which the plans lie flat. ”

“ After the publication of the designs of Shearer, Hepplewhite, and Sheraton, the heavy desks were superseded by those of lighter design, and the slant-top bureau desk was seldom made after 1790. Sheraton says: “Bureau in France is a small chest of drawers. It has generally been applied to common desks with drawers made under them. These pieces of furniture are nearly obsolete in London.” Slant-top desks do not appear in cabinet-makers’ books published after 1800, and it is safe to assign a date previous to the nineteenth century to any such desk. ”

“ In America we connect the term with a piece of furniture designed to hold articles of clothing in its various drawers. It was somewhere about the middle of the seventeenth century that the drawer was added to the lower part of the chest. Later in the century further drawer capacity was developed, and by the beginning of the next we find the complete chest of drawers in use. In view of this we shall not expect to find Jacobean desks, though we may find cabinets for writing-materials and documents and even occasional desk-like pieces. ”

“ It is easy to see that the original idea must have been taken from a common portable chest of drawers, such as officers use. The slight alteration in its arrangement is owing to Japanese common sense and observation, for it would have required more strength of character than a cockney upholsterer possesses, to divide one of the parts so unequally as in this illustration. But the male heart will be sure to delight specially in that one deep drawer for shirts, and the shallow one at the top for collars, pockethandkerchiefs, neckties, and so forth. ”

“ In time there was an accumulation of all sorts jumbled together in the drawer in a manner to make it difficult to find needed pieces without loss of time. Often the quickest [Pg 27] way to obtain the right piece was to cut off a longer one.
This wasteful method was the universal custom before the era of the labor-saving assortment stored in orderly fashion in a cabinet and placed within instant reach of the workman. ”

“ As types of the chests of drawers on legs we give two illustrations. Fig. 54, from a photograph supplied by Messrs. Hampton and Sons Ltd., Pall Mall, represents a fine specimen of veneered work of the William and Mary period. The figuring in the walnut veneer is very good and finely matched. The stand is tall, with but one long shallow drawer. The turned legs are particularly graceful in outline. It will be noticed that the inverted cup detail is repeated in the china cabinet (Fig. 69) , amongst the illustrations of lacquered furniture. ”

“ The Handkerchief Cabinet.—This very useful piece of apparatus should be in the repertoire of every amateur magician, as it is available for producing, changing, or vanishing a handkerchief. Its secret lies in the fact that it contains two drawers, bottom to bottom, the lower one being hidden by a sliding panel. When standing on the table the top drawer only is visible, and the cabinet looks the picture of innocence, but if turned over and stood on its opposite end, the sliding panel falls, exposing the hidden drawer, and hiding that which for the time being is at the bottom. ”

“ Now we'll try the upper part."
The upper part of the cabinet consisted of a series of drawers, rising one above the other, and terminated by a triangular pediment, its tympanum ornamented with some beautiful little bronzes. The drawers themselves were concealed by two doors, opening in the centre, and covered with a most intricate design of arabesqued incrustations.
"If there is a secret drawer here," said Godfrey, "it is somewhere in the back, where there seems to be a hollow space. But to discover the combination...." ”

“ Letter C shows the earliest styles of handles with the bail fastened into bolts which screw into the drawer. Letters D, E, and F give the succeeding styles of brass handles, the design growing more elaborate and increasing in size. These are found upon desks, chests of drawers, commodes, and other pieces of furniture of the Chippendale period.
The earliest form of high chest of drawers had six turned legs, four in front and two in the back, with stretchers between the legs, and was of Dutch origin, as well as the high chest with bandy or cabriole legs, which was some [23] years later in date. ”

“ Oh, yes; he used to keep it in a drawer of his writing desk. Not that I was one to pry; but he didn't try to hide the thing. Sometimes the drawer was left half open, and I couldn't help seeing what was in it, when I was putting the room to rights. ”

“ A cross section of the cabinet will appear, as a. The quarter-inch back is to be gained into the sides as shown in the top view.
The construction of the drawer is shown at c, the sides being cut away toward the back. Other [360] wise the drawer is simply an open box made of 3⁄8-inch pine or white wood, with 1⁄4-inch bottom put together with brads.
The false front, made of the same material as top and sides, gives a suitable finish, and practically covers all joints; it is secured by flat-head screws from the inside. ”

“ Launcelot Darrell threw the document which he had taken from the drawer upon a chair near him, and took another paper from his pocket. He put this second paper in the place from which he had taken the first, and then shut the drawer, and closed and locked the doors of the cabinet. He did all this in nervous haste, and neither he nor his companion perceived that a third paper, very much like the first in shape and size, had fallen out of one of the drawers and lay upon the carpet before the cabinet. ”

“ But Laura dropped upon her knees, ran her arm to the shoulder into the aperture where the last drawer came out, and drew forth the missing packet of papers, which lay crowded back upon the carpet.
“There!” said Mr. Sharp, quite in a matter-of-fact tone, “I have suggested to the Board of Education more than once that all these old unsanitary desks should be done away with. The only roll-top desk fit to use in the schools are those which stand upon feet, the bottom of the lower drawer being a few inches from the floor. ”

“ Another desk belonging to Mr. Hosmer is shown in Illustration 99. The bandy-legs end in a claw-and-ball of a flattened shape, and instead of the drawer, plain or with a carved sunburst, usually seen between the side drawers of the lower part, the wood of the frame is sawed in a simple design. The upper part has three drawers, and the lid when down rests upon two slides which pull out for the purpose. The interior is quite simple, having four drawers with eight small compartments above. This desk measures twenty-six inches in width and thirty-nine inches and a half in height. ”

“ For the very reason that the furnishings of the room are only temporary, and soon to be outgrown and discarded, it is quite satisfactory to buy a cheap grade of furniture whenever possible, if price is a consideration. A small bureau is less expensive than one made especially in a child's size, and is equally practical if not so substantially made. Such a bureau can be done over in white enamel to match the bed, or in any dark color that may be preferred in place of the shiny oak finish. ”

“ The doors are fastened on with hinges, using two metal knobs in front of the doors to open them. The foundation of the upper section is made of a box (5” deep × 18” × 26”) . The three crosspieces used as shelves are made from the two small boxes (5” × 12” × 18”) . Make the drawer of a box (5” × 18” × 24”) , putting a partition through the center of the box and on the inside if two drawers be desired. Place two hand bolts on the front of the drawer. Sandpaper, stain, and polish the sideboard.
[Pg 49] SCREEN
A screen is useful in many ways in the home. ”