Desk, Huali wood. Chinese, 18th century. A desk in plain polished huali wood, made in three section, with the three-drawer upper section resting on two two-drawer end sections.

Construction: The top is mitered, mortised and tenoned frame construction, with two-section flush floating panel, and the tenons exposed on the short members of the frame. Three transverse braces on the underside of the floating panel, mortised and tenoned into the long members of the frame, are modern replacements. secured to the floating panel with modern screws.

There are three drawers of equal size in the upper section, framed by the top frame members, four mitered, mortised and tenoned vertical corner members, and two mitered, mortised and tenoned vertical members at the front and rear. These vertical members are mitered, mortised and tenoned into four horizontal members which complete the box construction of the top section. The two central vertical members at front and rear have their tenons exposed on the undersides of the lower horizontals at front and rear. There are three floating panels at the rear, parallelling the drawer fronts, a floating panel at each side, and a floating panel connecting the lower horizontals and forming a baseboard. Two transverse members under this base board are mortised and tenoned into the lower front and rear horizontally.

The transverse drawer runners are modern additions, nailed/glued in place, as are the drawer stops. The raised, panelled drawers have sides, front and back double dove-tailed together, with the drawer bases tongue-and-grooved in. There are plain brass bail handle on each drawer on the top and bottom sections, each handle being mounted on two plain circular brass escutcheons. The top section is decorated with beading round the drawer frames and round the floating panel frames at the sides, but not at the rear.

Each pedestal section has two drawers, one on top of the other, and is of similar construction to the top section. They are decorated with beading round the drawer frames, round the frames of the side floating panels and round the edges of the square-section legs. A plain curved apron is tongue-and-grooved into the insides of the legs and lower horizontal member on four sides. The legs are connected near the feet by an openwork shelf in a geometric fret pattern, the individual members of which are mortised and tenoned, but not mitered together.

The three-drawer top section rests on and is secured to the two-drawer end sections by hidden inset tenons.