When you don't know about antique furniture, you can easily get lost among the different styles. The eye of a non-connoisseur will find the same furniture. For you, several desks can be classified as "old furniture," but each piece of furniture has its distinctive features. Each era has a different style.

Louis XV style desk

In history, the Louis XV style can be located between 1725 and 1760. It is also called rock style, rococo or Pompadour. Basically, it is a style that was created by cabinetmakers for the seats, but over time it has touched the other elements of the furniture. Furniture in this lineage is made of oak, walnut, beech, amaranth wood or violet wood. This wood can be used naturally, but it can also be polished, lacquered or painted white, pink, blue, lilac or light green. Some of the furniture in this Louis XV style is also made of solid mahogany or veneer, plum or ash. For decoration, these furniture went through the wood veneer and the marquetry. If we look more closely at the Louis XV style desk, we can distinguish two main models. There's the flat desk and the cylinder desk. The first model is rectangle with rounded corners and has arched feet. There are three drawers on it, one in the centre and two near the belt. The cylinder desk, on the other hand, as the name suggests, has a cylinder flap that closes shelves inside drawers. In the Louis XV style desk collection as in the Louis XIV desk collection, one can also find models that are more feminine like the donkey back model and the Capuchin model.

Louis XIII desk

If one believes the appointment of style, one would think that it is a style that corresponds to the reign of Louis XIII. In reality, this is not really the case, because it does not appear until after the death of Henry III and disappears when Louis XIV comes to power. The furniture in the Louis XIII style has a massive and structured appearance. One can also see on this type of furniture the accentuated work of the sculptors. Oak and walnut have particularly marked the Louis XIII style, but some craftsmen have still allowed themselves to use ebony, amaranth plated or marked. On the furniture, we also see details in metals, especially copper, tin or silver. Among the distinctive features of this style is the filming on the table's feet. During this era, craftsmen focused more on the design of buffets, but we still had a few desks. What characterizes them is their small dimensions and the tray which is very thick including a series of drawers.

Louis XVI desk

A century later, the style of furniture changes completely. Those of the Louis XV style have bypassed lines. For the Louis XVI style, craftsmen return to straight lines with less charged decorations. Indeed, we return more to the natural and in simplicity. We have sober and balanced furniture, but we still have a new geometric shape that appears in the design: the round. In the collection of furniture of the Louis XVI style, we have those that are speckled mahogany, moist, tracked or bramble. Among the species used are ebony, rosewood, beech, waxed walnut, yew, maple, amaranth and oak. Even if simplicity and sobriety are the bet, some furniture is still plated or marked. Today, in a furniture store, we have American desks. These are the cylinder desks of the Louis XVI style. They are distinguished by the top which is marble and its rounded shutter lowering from top to bottom. Under the tray, we have niche drawers. The desk of this style should not be confused with the empire desk. Among the Louis XVI-style desks, one can also find the flat Louis xvi desk which has straight feet and rounded or sharp corners.

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