Further Media
The roll-top desk - originally a French innovation in desk design - was associated with greater comfort for the user. The roll top and the writing surface were often connected by a mechanism that caused the writing surface to be pushed forward when the top was opened. This gave the user a large, more stable writing surface that - in contrast to the bureaus with hinged lids, for example - did not have to be tidied up to be closed. The model on display here originates from a Saxon workshop where inlay work made of various wood veneers - so-called marquetries - once again flourished in the 1770s. The commode next to it also demonstrates this very well: the commode was veneered with fine walnut; the inlays are made of maple. The original colouring of the decorative elements gave the marquetry a strongly illusionistic, almost three-dimensional effect.