It started innocently enough when my wife, Eileen, was watching a movie and said “Hey Alan look at that table”. I casually entered the room and looked at the TV and was struck by the elegant period furnishings in the movie she was watching- It turned out to be “Sense and Sensibility” with Kate Winslet, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman and Hugh Grant. So I finished watching the show..to see the “great furniture”….Sometime later "Mansfield Park" turned up at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor. I didn't even know it was a Jane Austen story at the time- Hey I didn't really know who Jane Austen was, but I looked at the previews and I knew Eileen would like that movie so I took her to see it. Then dear wife obtained the version of “Pride and Prejudice" with Keira Knightly and Donald Sutherland. So I watched that too. Finally, we watched the entire Austen series offered up on PBS .
Seeing all those Jane Austen films made me think how challenging it would be to design and build a piece that might sit well in at least one modest room in one of those stories....I decided on a Writing Desk as per the situation of Fitzwilliam Darcy. The design is not a reproduction of any particular piece. But I'll say that my goal was to produce a piece that has the look and feel of something you might find in one of those settings.
The desk is made from Walnut, Walnut veneer, and Sapele.
The design is dominated by gilded carvings, edge treatments and moldings.
Lets take a tour around the desk and see the view from the four sides.
Custom Fine Furniture by Alan Young
Take a letter .......
Finished !
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Woodward Woodworks
The front of the desk features a drawer with a gilded tambored center and carved pulls with an inset gilded dowel frame.
The drawer is itself sits in a gilded frame. Turned and fluted legs support the carcase. Above each leg is a shield
with a gilded carving.
The corners of the desk feature a double curved panel in a bold supported framework. The panel has an inlaid design.
The sides feature a walnut veneer panel in molded frame with gilded scroll and arrow carvings.
The back corners have a glided writing feather carving atop the turned, fluted and gilded leg.
The back side is a set of three veneered panels in molded frames. Gilded arrow carvings encircle the framework.
The Sapele top has gilded carvings in the corners and along the edges...