Secretaire en portefeuille
Encyclopedia
The secretaire en portefeuille breaks all records for slimness in desks and perhaps even in all furniture. It is an antique desk
form which is usually mounted on rollers at the end of four jutting legs. The legs in turn support what looks like an oversize vertically mounted wooden pizza box. This is a cabinet a few inches thick, with barely enough space in it for the raised desktop surface and a few pens and sheets of paper disposed vertically.
In short, the secretaire en portefeuille is much like a Fall front desk
which would have been reduced in depth to a bare minimum. Like the Fall front desk and the Secretary desk
the secretaire en portefeuille's desktop lifts up to cover internal areas and must thus be cleared of all work before closing up. By its mobile nature and its relatively light weight it was sometimes used as a Fire screen desk
.It was also sometimes known by that name.
Its name comes from the French word for wallet: Portefeuille. This is probably because it has the same proportions as many kinds of wallets and it opens up a bit like some of them.
Modern day cabinet makers and furniture designers have sometimes created contemporary versions of the secretaire en portefeuille, eschewing the florid designs of the antique ones.
Desk
A desk is a furniture form and a class of table often used in a work or office setting for reading or writing on or using a computer. Desks often have one or more drawers to store office supplies and papers. Unlike a regular table, usually only one side of a desk is suitable to sit on . Not all...
form which is usually mounted on rollers at the end of four jutting legs. The legs in turn support what looks like an oversize vertically mounted wooden pizza box. This is a cabinet a few inches thick, with barely enough space in it for the raised desktop surface and a few pens and sheets of paper disposed vertically.
In short, the secretaire en portefeuille is much like a Fall front desk
Fall front desk
The fall front desk can be considered the cousin of the Secretary desk. Both have a main working surface or desktop which does double duty as a cover to seal up papers and other items located in small shelves or small drawers placed one on top of the other in front of the user...
which would have been reduced in depth to a bare minimum. Like the Fall front desk and the Secretary desk
Secretary desk
A secretary desk is made of a base of wide drawers topped by a desk with a hinged desktop surface, which is in turn topped by a bookcase usually closed with a pair of doors, often made of glass...
the secretaire en portefeuille's desktop lifts up to cover internal areas and must thus be cleared of all work before closing up. By its mobile nature and its relatively light weight it was sometimes used as a Fire screen desk
Fire screen desk
The fire screen desk was a very small antique desk meant to be placed in front of a fireplace to keep a user's feet warm while he or she was stationary while writing...
.It was also sometimes known by that name.
Its name comes from the French word for wallet: Portefeuille. This is probably because it has the same proportions as many kinds of wallets and it opens up a bit like some of them.
Modern day cabinet makers and furniture designers have sometimes created contemporary versions of the secretaire en portefeuille, eschewing the florid designs of the antique ones.