The 17th Century gateleg table is really just a form of drop-leaf table. Over the years as the drop-leaf table evolved with the changing styles, so did the shape and design of the legs. Early in the 18th Century, the Queen Anne cabriole gateleg replaced the turned gateleg. A little later the cabriole leg was displaced by the square or block Chippendale leg. The Federal period in the United States brought in a more delicate tapered square leg, and so on, and so on.

That is why aesthetically the "gate" of the William-and-Mary, gateleg table is the element that distinguishes it from all other drop-leaf styles. It may be small, large enough to hold a candle and a few papers - or large enough to use as a dining table (some accommodate up to a dozen people), but every William-and-Mary gateleg table displays a contrast between the robust lines of the legs and gates (usually totaling eight members) and the simple smooth top. The turned leg, however, with its turned urns and rings is what quickly identifies it as a William-and-Mary piece.

In reality the chances of finding an unidentified period gateleg table are fairly slim. More often you'll find an old copy being sold as a period piece.

During the first quarter of the 20th Century, both large manufacturers and smaller, custom furniture makers, produced countless varieties of the versatile gateleg table.

Back then, 17th Century furniture was so revered that the 1927 Furniture Dealers' Reference Book proclaimed William-and Mary furniture to be, "… admirably adapted to present day homes, attractive simple, and not difficult to reproduce."

With so many pieces mistakenly tagged "period pieces" how can you distinguish between the two? No matter how old the exterior looks (remember that 60 or more years of constant use leave surface nicks, dents, and marks that make a piece appear older than it really is), the obvious 20th Century fingerprints found underneath, and inside - modern saw marks, machine cut dovetails at the drawers, modern nails, and screws or hinges - will instantly give a new but old-looking piece away.

If a first inspection fails to turn up any of the above, it is time to turn the table over and look for signs of wear where the heavy gates would have been moved in and out for over 250 odd years.

The combined weight and pressure of the two parts, the leaf and the swing-gate, rubbing against one another will have left a clear pattern or shallow groove on the leafs under side.

Early gateleg tables were usually made of walnut or maple, and the later ones of mahogany. Though there are some tables with straight or unshaped leaves, the oval leaf that ends just above the stretcher is most desirable. Now comes the question of price. Well-proportioned gateleg tables with good turnings and from the correct period generally cost $10,000 to $30,000. Reproduction or early 20th Century and late 19th Century gateleg tables of fine quality, especially custom-made pieces, usually run from the low thousands to as high as eight or ten thousand.

The gateleg table provides a functional and interesting addition to a good furniture collection.


writing table

A writing table (French bureau plat) has a series of drawers directly under the surface of the table, to contain writing implements, so that it may serve as a desk. Antique versions have the usual divisions for the inkpot, the blotter and the sand or powder tray in one of the drawers, and a surface covered with leather or some other material less hostile to the Quill or the Fountain pen than simple hard wood.



In form, a writing table is a Pedestal desk without the pedestals, having legs instead to hold it up. This is why such tables are sometimes called leg desks.

The writing table is often called a "Bureau plat" when it is done in a French style such as Louis XVI, Art Nouveau, etc. When a writing table is supported by two legs instead of four, it is usually called a Trestle desk.

The writing table is also sometimes called a library table, because it was often placed in a rich individual's library. This was the room in a house where a gentleman would keep literature and also do his business transactions. The library often housed, in addition, a round desk called a Rent table and sometimes a Drawing table. The term library table is sometimes applied indiscriminately to a wide variety of desk forms, in addition to being used for writing tables. Let the scholar or the buyer be wary.

Some writing tables have additional drawers built above the surface. In this case they are often called Bureau a gradin instead of writing table, unless they have a more specific form, such as that of a Carlton house desk.

As with many other desk forms antique writing tables were sometimes built with what was, at the time, a complex mechanism of gears and levers to make sections slide out or pop up when certain panels were pulled. In this case one sometimes called them a Mechanical desk.


Antique trestle desk

The antique trestle desk is usually very much like the Writing table desk form, which offers a simple flat desktop surface with a few drawers underneath it. Unlike the writing table the trestle desk is supported by two legs instead of four, and the legs are designed to be dismantled easily in order to store or move the desk efficiently. More precisely, the two legs are two strong side supports which branch out in two feet each (for a total of four) at the bottom.

Some antique trestle desks are fitted with small cubby holes and nooks or small drawers at the extremity of the work surface, and thus resemble a Bureau a gradin.



Modern trestle desk

The modern trestle desk is not so much a desk form as a desk improvisation. In shape and manufacture it sometimes resembles certain variations of the antique field desk which was used by officers not too far from the battlefield. Basically the modern trestle desk improv is a plank of wood set on two trestles.

It is eminently portable, and eminently practical, when care is taken to provide stable trestles. The advent of the Cubicle desk created a market for independent desk elements of all kinds, such as short, rolling filing cabinets. These proved suitable for use under a trestle desk and encouraged improvisation.

During the heyday of the dot-com boom many companies liked to go to the extremes in office furnishings. Some would stock rooms with expensive Aeron chairs and the most lavish type of ergonomic desk available, while others would have their employees sit on boxes and work on desks made of used doors set on old trestles or crates. Others still mixed the costly and the cheap, sometimes to the advantage of the user, by doing things like picking good quality chairs and making cheap but sturdy trestle desk improvisations. These activities popularised the trestle desk as a desk form, and some of this survived after the dot-com burst in the year 2000.

For instance, Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos and top Amazon executives usually worked on doors set on trestles, as a visible example of a frugal company culture.