The fall front desk can be considered the cousin of the Secretary desk. Both have a main working surface or desktop which does double duty as a cover to seal up papers and other items located in small shelves or small drawers placed one on top of the other in front of the user. Thus, all working papers, documents and other items have to be stored before the desk is closed.
Unlike the secretary desk, the fall front desk's desktop panel is in a perfectly vertical position when in its closed position. Often, there are no additional shelves or drawers above the section which is enclosed by the desktop. Thus, the fall front desk is identical in shape to a Bargueno desk which would have been placed on a stand of drawers, or more precisely to the form known as Desk on a chest or as "chest-on chest".
The fall front desk is also called a drop front desk or drop-front desk, and sometimes also a drop lid desk. Scrutoire and scriptoire are ancient variations. The "secrétaire à abattant" is a nearly identical form, but usually in a French style such as Louis XV, Art Deco, etc.. In the early 19th century Shaker communities produced a tall and plain variation which is often known as a "cupboard desk".
Famous quotes containing the words fall, front and/or desk:
“Follow your saint, follow with accents sweet;
Haste you, sad notes, fall at her flying feet.
There, wrapped in cloud of sorrow, pity move,
And tell the ravisher of my soul I perish for her love.”
—Thomas Campion (1567–1620)
“Love is the hardest thing in the world to write about. So simple. You’ve got to catch it through details, like the early morning sunlight hitting the gray tin of the rain spout in front of her house. The ringing of a telephone that sounds like Beethoven’s “Pastoral.” A letter scribbled on her office stationery that you carry around in your pocket because it smells of all the lilacs in Ohio.”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)
“We must rest here, for this is where the teacher comes.
On his desk stands a vase of tears.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)