Secret drawers, scratches or scraps of paper can all help raise the price of desks owned by notable figures from Terence Conran to Joan Didion
" Fine pieces commissioned by famous designers for their own use are often the most coveted of all. At the European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht this year, crowds gathered around another unique piece, a dazzling Art Deco desk that once belonged to Paul Dupré-Lafon, one of France’s leading architects and furniture designers, made to his specifications in 1928. It took centre stage in Parisian dealer Galerie Marcilhac’s stand.
Dupré-Lafon, who has been described as the “decorator of millionaires”, was known for expensive lamps, ashtrays and so on in the functionalist style, designed for the private homes of 20th-century Parisian society. His sizeable desk of black pearwood came with accoutrements: a scarlet-leather insert and an inlaid tray that made paperwork disappear at the touch of a slim brass handle; a chunky swivel-chair, also in red leather; a light-fracturing desk lamp; even Dupré-Lafon’s pearwood waste-paper bin."
