In the earlier post, Picture This XXXV, I illustrated a mid-eighteenth-century mahogany bureau whose top drawer partially concealed the loper pockets.
An earlier bureau (fig. 1) with not dissimilar extended drawer fronts sold at Christie’s The Connoisseur’s Eye sale yesterday, in New York (lot 21).
Fig. 1. George II walnut bureau, circa 1740. (Christie’s)
Note how the outer ends of the lipped top drawer fronts wrap around the early style shallow lopers. Figure 2 shows the more common construction.
Fig. 2. George II walnut bureau, circa 1740. (Windsor House Antiques)
Jack Plane
Pegs and 'Tails 
My amateur eye doesn’t like the look of fig. 1. It seems to make the drawer front look cobbled-up.
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I tend to agree.
JP
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So…the drawer front and sides are notched to allow for the loper? Or is the drawer front just extended past the drawer sides to cover the space bellow the loper? I agree that it makes the arrangement look odd, as if the lopers were added on as an after-thought. Especially because the feather and edge banding is interrupted and not continued on the face of the loper.
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After looking a the auction,s description I see the drawers are “shams” or fakes. I guess there is a deep well or hidden compartment under the desks writing surface…
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Correct, the bureau’s interior would be fitted with a sliding cover over a well.
JP
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Goddard Blockfront secretaries are constructed in a manner similar to figure 1.
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I do beg your pardon. I forgot one thing. The top drawer in a blockfront is no sham, it is a real drawer.
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