Exceptional Mechanical Roll Top Desk: circa 1850 French Antique (Period Furniture)!

An unusual antique mechanical roll top desk from the mid-1850s, in exceptionally well preserved red mottled mahogany. This piece is unusually artful for the period, although it is late in the traditional timeline of pre-industrial decorative art furniture (1500-1840). The mechanisms inside are also signed which gives this piece a documentable aspect which is rare for mid-19th century domestic pieces. Americans identify with this model of desk as it is the ancestor of the famous American roll top desks of the later 19th and 20th centuries. It is called a bureau à caissons in French, for the “caisson” or file cabinet shaped sides which support the writing surface. It is also called a railroad desk for how it corresponds chronologically with the rise of the railroad. Thank you to all viewers and subscribers, Cole Myers & Monroe, LLC