Bargueno desk
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The Vargueño (also Bargueño) is a desk first produced in the 15th century that continues to be produced to this day. The only other desk which is known to have been continuously produced is the trestle desk, but some authorities exclude this desk from consideration because in early times it also served as a dining table and money lender's counter.
The vargueño was sometimes used for sewing or as a jewel chest instead of solely for reading and writing and storing the necessary implements for these activities.
The vargueño is above all a portable desk which resembles the top half of a fall front desk. It is basically a chest with its lid on the side, and an interior equipped with a good quantity of small drawers and pigeon holes.
As a general rule the interior of a vargueño is much more richly decorated than the exterior. Thus a vargueño looking very plain from the exterior will have a reasonably rich and well sculpted interior while a vargueño with impressive exterior decorations will have a truly ornate and extremely rich interior with ivory inlays and velvet decoration. It is one of the best examples of wood craftsmanship in Renaissance Spain.
There was usually a very sturdy iron handle on each side of the Bargueño, to make transport relatively easy for two strong servants. A vargueno could be set down on any solid table but there were often ready made supports for it: the "Taquillon" was a chest of drawers decorated much like it while the "Pie de puente" was a small trestle table also in the same style and material. Photo Vargueños first appeared in the 15th and were popular all through the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. After a lull in the 19th century, they became again popular as antiques in the 20th.
The only other major antique combination of a large portable desk and a frame is the more delicate and humble desk on a frame of the 18th century. It was popular in Colonial America.
Varguenos were very common especially during the Spanish Renaissance. They are a hinged fall front piece used for storing valuables like jewels and or important papers and documents. Varguenos are multi-functional; they were not only used for storage but also as a desk. This was a very heavy duty piece of furniture. Starting in the 15th century it was prestigious for someone to know how to read, people liked to "show off" if they could read and having this in your home would be implying literacy and education. This piece of furniture usually has a rectilinear design. The doors and drawers on a vargueno are heavly decorated with inlaid ivory and marquetry.
See also the list of desk forms and types.
[edit] References
- Hayward, Helena, ed.. World Furniture: An Illustrated History. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1965. As Vargueno: pp. 63, 64, 103, 160, ill. no. 197-198, 202
- Payne, Christopher, ed.. Sotheby's Concise Encyclopedia of Furniture. London: Conran Octopus, 1989. As Vargueno: pp. 29, 30, 36, 67 ill. on pp. 29, 36
