Bargueño desk

The Bargueño (also Vargueño) is a desk first produced in the 15th century that continues to be produced to this day. The only other desk which is known to have been continuously produced for so long is the trestle desk, but some authorities exclude this desk from consideration because in early times it also served as a dining table and money lender's counter.

The bargueño was sometimes used for sewing or as a jewel chest instead of solely for reading and writing and storing the necessary implements for these activities.

The bargueño is above all a portable desk which resembles the top half of a fall front desk. It is basically a chest with its lid on the side, and an interior equipped with a good quantity of small drawers and pigeon holes.

As a general rule the interior of a bargueño is much more richly decorated than the exterior. Thus a bargueño looking very plain from the exterior will have a reasonably rich and well sculpted interior while a bargueño with impressive exterior decorations will have a truly ornate and extremely rich interior with ivory inlays and velvet decoration. It is one of the best examples of wood craftsmanship in Renaissance Spain.

There was usually a very sturdy iron handle on each side of the Bargueño, to make transport relatively easy for two strong servants. A bargueno could be set down on any solid table but there were often ready made supports for it: the "Taquillon" was a chest of drawers decorated much like it while the "Pie de puente" was a small trestle table also in the same style and material. [http://www.anresto-antiquairs.nl/images/producten/vargueno-450x369-P1140013.jpgPhoto] Bargueños first appeared in the 15th and were popular all through the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. After a lull in the 19th century, they became again popular as antiques in the 20th.

The only other major antique combination of a large portable desk and a frame is the more delicate and humble desk on a frame of the 18th century. It was popular in Colonial America.

See also

*List of desk forms and types.

References

*Hayward, Helena, ed.. World Furniture: An Illustrated History. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1965. As "Vargueno": pp. 63, 64, 103, 160, ill. no. "197-198, 202"
*Payne, Christopher, ed.. Sotheby's Concise Encyclopedia of Furniture. London: Conran Octopus, 1989. As "Vargueno": pp. 29, 30, 36, 67 ill. on pp. "29, 36"