Writing Table

WRITING TABLE

A writing table (French bureau plat) has a series of drawers directly under the surface of the table, to contain writing implements, so that it may serve as a desk. Antique versions have the usual divisions for the inkpot, the blotter and the sand or powder tray in one of the drawers, and a surface covered with leather or some other material less hostile to the quil or the fountain pen than simple hard wood.

Writing table (Bureau plat), about 1750, Gaspard Feilt (designer and maker), France V&A Museum no. 1052:1 to 5-1882


In form, a writing table is a pedestal desk without the pedestals, having legs instead to hold it up. This is why such tables are sometimes called leg desks.

The writing table is often called a "Bureau plat" when it is done in a French style such as Louis XVI, art nouveau, etc. When a writing table is supported by two legs instead of four, it is usually called a trestle desk.

The writing table is also sometimes called a library table, because it was often placed in a rich individual's library. This was the room in a house where a gentleman would keep literature and also do his business transactions. The library often housed, in addition, a round desk called a rent table and sometimes a drawing table. The term library table is sometimes applied indiscriminately to a wide variety of desk forms, in addition to being used for writing tables. Let the scholar or the buyer be wary.