ANTIQUE DESK FROM GERMANY

[dsquire]

ANTIQUE DESK FROM GERMANY

     

Unbelievable German ingenuity!
 
Can you imagine buying this desk and having no instruction book with it?
 
And to think the fellow who made this over two hundred years ago did it with hand tools only!!

Cheers 

Don

[S. Heslop]

Someone must've either had alot of money or alot of time for that monstrosity to be made.

[AdeV]

That's a bit too gothic even for my tastes, but the mechanisms look to be pure genius. All weights and springs presumably... I wonder how you reset the rotating secret compartments...

[Meldonmech]

 
   Don, what a fabulous piece of design, engineering, and cabinet making. It looks like a lifetimes work.

                                Thanks for posting, has it given you any inspiration?

                                                        Cheers  David

[mklotz]

Truly astounding work.  Here's its sister piece...
   
     

[dsquire]

Marv

I edited yours to show it as embeded. I went looking again and found a nice dressing table to go along with the other pieces.

     

 

David

   Don, what a fabulous piece of design, engineering, and cabinet making. It looks like a lifetimes work.

                                Thanks for posting, has it given you any inspiration?

It certainly has given me lots to procrastinate about.

                                                        Cheers  David

That's a bit too gothic even for my tastes, but the mechanisms look to be pure genius. All weights and springs presumably... I wonder how you reset the rotating secret compartments...

Ade
If I wanted to get a lot of work done it would not be be my first choice either. It would be a bit of a challenge to figure out all the hardware and mechanical components for sure.

Someone must've either had alot of money or alot of time for that monstrosity to be made.

S.Heskop
They had either time and very good wood crafting and mechanical skills or a fist full of money to pay someone that did have those first two qualities.


Cheers 

Don

[S. Heslop]

It annoys me that in an ara of real exciting and clever engineering people gravitate towards this antiques roadshow crap. It's an ugly badly designed cabinet with some springs and pulleys to open the doors. Compared to something like a marine chronometer from the same time it looks like a joke, but people will get excited because it's tickles that part of them that wants to be a nobleman.

[DavidA]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

I know people who think that anyone who spends time in a pokey shed with a lathe and lets some kid in to watch  are potential child abusers and should be reported to the police.

We live in a strange world.

Dave

[mklotz]

It annoys me that in an ara of real exciting and clever engineering people gravitate towards this antiques roadshow crap. It's an ugly badly designed cabinet with some springs and pulleys to open the doors. Compared to something like a marine chronometer from the same time it looks like a joke, but people will get excited because it's tickles that part of them that wants to be a nobleman.

I feel for you.  It must be really sad to be unable to appreciate any art that does not fit your narrow definition.

[DavidA]

Born in 1711.  So no machine tools used.  Maybe a pole lathe.

It is very much of it's time ard place. Whatever one things of the style, the craftsmanship cannot be denied.

Also,  maybe he had no use for a chronometer.

Could John Harrison have made a equally good Cabinet ?

Dave

[awemawson]

Well John Harrison WAS a carpenter 

[S. Heslop]

I've been making sly comments but I should probably just say what I feel, even if it sounds ridiculous.

I have a couple of pet peeves, one of them is the glorification of hand tools and the other is this kind of overly ornate and indulgent stuff. In woodworking hand tools aren't particularly hard to use, only time consuming, but there's alot of people out there that get a bit too excited about them and assume people that use them are better woodworkers. With this desk I don't feel the mechanisms are particularly clever or revolutionary, it might've taken the guy a few months to complete it but it wouldn't have been too taxing, and the styling is pretty ugly even for the era. It's as if the clutter of details, awkward features, and the assumed time wasted on them makes people think it must be good.

That in itself isn't something that bothers me too much though, I don't blow a gasket every time I watch an antiques show. But really i'm more disappointed since I figured people on this forum would feel the same way I do about this kind of stuff, or at least appreciate that the desk isn't some marvel of ingenuity craftsmanship.

[DavidA]

Yes indeed.  Harrison was a carpenter.

But not a cabinet  maker.  A subtle difference.

But in either case.  I think the skill of the men is beyond question.

Dave.

[DavidA]

So I can take it that you have no liking for the ornate Victorian engineering either.

Dave.

[S. Heslop]

So I can take it that you have no liking for the ornate Victorian engineering either.

Dave.

I'm not sure what you mean. The desk in question is more Georgian than Victorian. But like any era, there was good stuff and bad stuff. There's a difference between 'ornate' and 'cluttered' as well, since ornate usually implies some kind of style to the decoration.

[AdeV]

With this desk I don't feel the mechanisms are particularly clever or revolutionary, it might've taken the guy a few months to complete it but it wouldn't have been too taxing

They may not be revolutionary, but I do think they're quite clever. Notice how the same button has different functions depending on what state the desk is in - a primitive state machine, you might say... which would be pretty revolutionary.