Wilk, Christopher (ed.) <font -u>Western Furniture: 1350 to the Present Day</font>. Philip Wilson/V&A, London, 1996, pp. 30-31.
ISBN: 1856674435
Victoria & Albert Museum: Fifty Masterpieces of Woodwork (London, 1955), no. 16.
A Tudor Table Desk
Among the foreign novelties introduced into England under the early Tudors, were desks fitted with drawers, caskets and writing cabinets. Such small objects of luxury covered with leather or velvet and ‘<i>garnyshed with gilt nails</i>’ are described in the inventory of Henry VIII's possessions drawn up in 1547. It lists several desks containing a variety of small implements such as ‘a paiexe of sycssores, a payer of compas and a peruie knyfe cased with metal’. Another held a hawking set and falconer’s gloves with silk buttons.
This highly ornate and important table desk covered with painted and gilt leather bears the heraldic badges of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon, the Portcullis, the Tudor Rose, the impaled Rose and Pomegranate, the Fleur-de-lis, the Castle (with cypher H. R.) and the Sheaf of Arrows. On the inner lid are painted the Royal Arms encircled by the garter, with boys blowing trumpets as supporters. On either side, standing beneath canopies, are figures of Mars in armour and Venus with Cupid, the designs being executed with great spirit after woodcuts (c. 1510) by Hans Burgkmair, the celebrated German engraver.
On a parchment border below the lid may be deciphered traces of an inscription, doubtless added at an appreciably later date, which reads as Follows: HENRICO OCTAVO REGI ANGLIAE DEI … RELIGIONIS CHRISTIANAE MAXIME PROTECTORI.
This table desk was purchased for the Museum in 1932 out of the Funds of the Murray Bequest.
<i>English; 1525. </i>
H. 9 ½ in., W. 16 in., Depth 11 ½ in.
Henry VIII - Man and Monarch, exhibition catalogue edited by Susan Doran (British Library, London, 2009), no. 107, p.116
Henry VIII's Writing Desk, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, W.29:1-9-1932
This beautifully decorated portable writing desk is one of the few luxury items to have survived from Henry's court. Made of walnut and covered with painted and gilded leather, the desk displays the royal arms, supported by putti and flanked by Mars, the Roman god of war, and Venus, the goddess of love, with her son Cupid. Henry and Katherine's initials and the pomegranate of Granada and arrow-sheaf of Aragon, both personal symbols of Katherine, also form part of the decoration. The various drawers and compartments in the desk would have been used to store the King's writing equipment, although, as he once confessed to Wolsey, he found writing letters 'tedious and painful' and therefore reserved it for matters of great importance. Made before 1527, this desk may well be the one that Henry used to write his love letters to Anne Boleyn.
As he grew older, and became more deeply involved in the detail of policy, Henry wrote more and more, and writing desks, pens, pencils and spectacles were to be found in quantity in all his principal palaces. (AC and DS)
LITERATURE: Starkey (ed.). Inventory
ecrm:P3_has_note
Wilk, Christopher (ed.) <font -u>Western Furniture: 1350 to the Present Day</font>. Philip Wilson/V&A, London, 1996, pp. 30-31.
ISBN: 1856674435
Victoria & Albert Museum: Fifty Masterpieces of Woodwork (London, 1955), no. 16.
A Tudor Table Desk
Among the foreign novelties introduced into England under the early Tudors, were desks fitted with drawers, caskets and writing cabinets. Such small objects of luxury covered with leather or velvet and ‘<i>garnyshed with gilt nails</i>’ are described in the inventory of Henry VIII's possessions drawn up in 1547. It lists several desks containing a variety of small implements such as ‘a paiexe of sycssores, a payer of compas and a peruie knyfe cased with metal’. Another held a hawking set and falconer’s gloves with silk buttons.
This highly ornate and important table desk covered with painted and gilt leather bears the heraldic badges of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon, the Portcullis, the Tudor Rose, the impaled Rose and Pomegranate, the Fleur-de-lis, the Castle (with cypher H. R.) and the Sheaf of Arrows. On the inner lid are painted the Royal Arms encircled by the garter, with boys blowing trumpets as supporters. On either side, standing beneath canopies, are figures of Mars in armour and Venus with Cupid, the designs being executed with great spirit after woodcuts (c. 1510) by Hans Burgkmair, the celebrated German engraver.
On a parchment border below the lid may be deciphered traces of an inscription, doubtless added at an appreciably later date, which reads as Follows: HENRICO OCTAVO REGI ANGLIAE DEI … RELIGIONIS CHRISTIANAE MAXIME PROTECTORI.
This table desk was purchased for the Museum in 1932 out of the Funds of the Murray Bequest.
<i>English; 1525. </i>
H. 9 ½ in., W. 16 in., Depth 11 ½ in.
Henry VIII - Man and Monarch, exhibition catalogue edited by Susan Doran (British Library, London, 2009), no. 107, p.116
Henry VIII's Writing Desk, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, W.29:1-9-1932
This beautifully decorated portable writing desk is one of the few luxury items to have survived from Henry's court. Made of walnut and covered with painted and gilded leather, the desk displays the royal arms, supported by putti and flanked by Mars, the Roman god of war, and Venus, the goddess of love, with her son Cupid. Henry and Katherine's initials and the pomegranate of Granada and arrow-sheaf of Aragon, both personal symbols of Katherine, also form part of the decoration. The various drawers and compartments in the desk would have been used to store the King's writing equipment, although, as he once confessed to Wolsey, he found writing letters 'tedious and painful' and therefore reserved it for matters of great importance. Made before 1527, this desk may well be the one that Henry used to write his love letters to Anne Boleyn.
As he grew older, and became more deeply involved in the detail of policy, Henry wrote more and more, and writing desks, pens, pencils and spectacles were to be found in quantity in all his principal palaces. (AC and DS)
LITERATURE: Starkey (ed.). Inventory