Tallboy and writing bureau

A tallboy is a high piece of furniture that resembles two chests of drawers stacked on top of each other, with the lower one being slightly wider than the upper. This form, which originated in English furniture-making, gained popularity in the 18th and 19th centuries. However, the name can be misleading, as “-boy” was borrowed and transformed from the French word "bois," meaning wood. The tallboy was mainly used in bedrooms, where a special step stool, designed to assist in getting onto traditional high beds, also allowed convenient access to the highest drawers of the chest. The popularity of the tallboy declined when the high beds were replaced by lower ones that could be accessed from floor level. One of the middle drawers of the English tallboy often served as a writing bureau—a special mechanism allowed the front of the drawer to fold down, creating a writing surface. This type of furniture was known as a tallboy and writing bureau, like the piece being presented here. Tallboys were also widely used in North America, where they were referred to as highboys, chest-on-chests, double chests, or high chests.

Teresa Bagińska-Żurawska https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9243-3967