Blenheim Bureau

One of the greatest examples of English Baroque architecture and designed by Sir John Vanburgh and Nicholas Hawksmoor, Blenheim Palace lends itself perfectly to David Linley’s classically inspired furniture.

The Blenheim Bureau stands nearly nine feet tall and over five feet wide. Constructed in beautiful French polished mahogany and flame mahogany veneers the Bureau is beautifully decorated with gilded ormolu and carving and incorporates many of the outstanding features which make David Linley’s furniture unique.

On the roll top of the desk section is a wonderful scenic view in marquetry depicting a view of the Palace and grounds across the lake with the bridge in the foreground.

Above the roll-top is the bookcase section with fluted columns, gilded and topped with Corinthian capitals.  Standing in the centre of the top section is a column, representing the Column of Victory in the grounds of Blenheim Palace, built to commemorate the first Duke of Marlborough’s victory of Blenheim in 1704.  Behind the column is a faceted concave section made of silver leaf mirrors depicting another famous feature of the Palace, the Hall of Mirrors.

On top of the Bureau is a clock, with blue enamel face representing the clock tower at the Palace.  The clock has brass fittings and a hand made mechanical movement.

Around the lower section of the cabinet housing the drawers, the gilded ormolu adds considerable weight to the piece.  David Linley had never used ormolu in a piece of furniture before, but consistent with his exacting standards of quality no effort was spared to make this an extraordinary feature of  this extraordinary piece of furniture.

If all this attention to detail and quality of craftsmanship is not enough, the finale of this piece is that it is a mechanical piece of furniture: as the roll top is lifted effortlessly, the kneehole section moves into the body of the cabinet and the side sections together with the writing surface moves out to create a writing desk.  Located within the cabinet behind the writing surface is a scale model of the palace façade in sycamore, burr ash and grey sycamore incorporating drawers and compartments (both open and secret) to accommodate writing materials and equipment.

The whole mechanical system runs smoothly and effortlessly due to the quality of craftsmanship and the precision engineering involved in its development and locks with one single key in a Bramah lock (Bramah made the original gates to the Palace in the eighteenth century) elegantly concealed within the desk. 

Incorporating many of the architectural features and history of the Blenheim Palace, this bureau is truly the most remarkable piece of furniture ever to be made in David Linley’s workshops. It is the result of thousands of hours of design and development by some of the most skilled craftsmen in the world and will stand out as one of the most interesting pieces of furniture ever made.