Featured Help identifying an unusual drop front bureau

Good afternoon everyone.
I have here a rather unusual drop front bureau and I really have difficulties with it…
I remember to have seen this kind of décor of the lower part but wasn’t able to date it at all.
It is rather small. The green layer is felt.
The front itself with its ledge decorations looks almost Jacobean but on the other hand the feet do not at all. There are no additional woods for holding the dropping front even, you have to pull out the upper drawers for it.
It is all wood, no veneer. The hardware looks like old brass but definitely not the initial one, since you see a lot of unused old holes behind it if you take one off. The locks may be original, but are only stamped with "lever" nothing else..
The dove tails are handmade (I could show more pictures tomorrow)
Does anyone have an idea?

 

Welcome to Antiquers Nvntivs!

Lovely piece. Desk more than a bureau.

Wait for others who can offer help.

 

Hi Judy, I am not as new as my "title" here says But thank you anyway, hope for many replies...or actually just for one, explaining everything

 

Would think English and at least late 19th century. The arches seen on this are Moorish influenced. The only thing I found even remotely similar is this desk from Liberty and Co.



I suppose it could possibly be Anglo-Indian but would expect a bit more embellishment than we see.

 

The arches look Indian, but Anglo Indian/Indo-Portuguese/Indo-Dutch furniture is different, so I agree with Brad, the influence is Western Orientalist rather than Anglo Indian etc.

 

Just as I suspected. Really unusual thing it is… I also thought of the Indian influence, so around the time when Victoria became Empress of India, but on the other hand, I do not recall ever hearing of any Indian influenced style of those days…

 

It is a bit of a mystery. But an attractive one, I like it.
For a second I considered Syrian, etc made for a European customer, but it is too 'contained' and delicate for a Syrian cabinet maker. Whatever the brief, he would have seen a way to persuade the buyer to accept something with more Middle Eastern influence.

 

It looks original & probably "baize" a woolen cloth that looks like felt but isn't, used today to cover card tables & pool/billiard tables

Yes, called a slant lid or fall front desk in USA, I think many in europe call them bureau.

 

To my eye Moorish in design and possibly inspired by 'The Grammar of Ornament,' the 1856 work by Owen Jones. Here's a similar arch in the Mezquita in Cordoba.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_Jones_(architect)

Debora

 

In Dutch we would call it a secretaire, which is more delicate than a bureau. Both are French terms of course.

 

exactly! I mean during the aesthetic period there was a lot of Asien influence, but this piece is definitely not a bit Asian in style and I do not recall to have ever heard of other important foreign style influences in England. All the oriental export furniture I know was usually like exploding with details. You know, so the customers guests would 1000% know he got an exotic piece Furthemore this piece does not look like it was supposed to be more of an ornament than a piece for use. It definitely saw a lot of use. Tomorrow I have it at home so I can probably find more details and probably take down all of these later metal fittings.

 

So, reverting to this mystery… as promised some new pictures…. first of all I found I company mark. "The Kensington Furn. Co. Ltd."

This narrows the search a bit. Since this corporate form was not in use before mid of 19th century I think the piece should be not older than 1860/70. The only two companies I found during my researches with at least a similar name is "the kensington funriture co. ltd." still active today, and the "kensington manufacturing co".

Both began their activities rather late for this piece. Around 1912.

On the other hand, in "Henderson's city of Vancouver and north Vancouver Directory" of 1909 I found a certain agent representing a "Kensington Furniture Co. Ltd". Now I really hope for some assistance. Maybe these pictures will help.
I would like you to notice some odd details.

1st: the handles have definitely been replaced, and not too well. Picture 6 shows a little how the original ones should be.

2nd: I am also not sure about the locks. If you check the one picture with the lock attached, you will see that the initial holes for the handles are located in my opinion just too narrowly to the cutout for the lock. I cannot imagine the original handle was well attachable this way. I rather think the initial cutout for the lock was smaller. The lock itself does not give a lot of clues else…

If you need any more pictures, I will gladly correspond.

 

a bureau in French is a simple flat table with or without drawers, a secretaire can be closed and has a sturdy "understructure".

 

Well... nobody could use all the newly provided information?

 

Well, i have little knowledge of english/european furniture but, in looking at drawer , I'd say 19th century construction because of the bevel on drawer bottom that slides into grooves on drawer sides.

 

thanks, with bevel you mean the slightly rounded rear ends of the drawer in the second picture from below?

 

Rounded ends? Yes, next to last pic. The drawer bottom on 3 sides has a bevel planed on edges and slides into a groove on drawer sides and front.

 

Ok, thanks… I have to admit I thought of something different I figured you spoke about the slightly rounded ends of the sides of the drawer the bottom is attached to.

So in the beginning of the 20th century they crafted the bottom of the drawer differently yet?

 

The drawer construction you see above is typical 19th century

 

Great info James !! ... Joy.