Secretary desk

Like the slant-top desk, the main work surface is a hinged piece of wood that is flat when open and oblique when raised to enclose secondary work surfaces such as small shelves, small drawers and nooks stacked in front of the user.

The secretary is one of the most common antique desk forms and has been endlessly reproduced and copied for home use in the last hundred years.

To add to the confusion, certain forms of the secretary desk are called escritoire, usually when the bookcase section is covered with glazed panels instead of wooden doors, but the term escritoire is also sometimes used to define a very portable writing slope, which is it at the other extreme in terms of bulk and weight.

The term is also applied sometimes to very big pieces of furniture made up of three elements, one of them being a half-wide secretary desk.

Similar desks may be found in homes across Europe and North America used in backyards and patios to support modern remote work outdoors where weather permits.