The wood of this secretary is oak, and the entire piece is covered with lacquer in brilliant red, blue, and gold. The upper part, or cabinet, has doors which are lacquered on the inside, with looking-glasses on the outside. A looking-glass is also set into the middle of the top. These glasses are all the original ones and are of heavy plate with the old bevel upon the edges. Above the compartments, and fitting into the two arches of the top are semi-circular-shaped flap doors, which open downward. Between these and the pigeonholes are two shallow drawers extending across the cabinet. The middle compartment has two doors with vases of flowers lacquered upon them, and there is a drawer above, while the spaces each side of the doors are occupied by drawers. The slides for candlesticks are gone, but the slits show where they were originally. The lower or desk part is divided by a moulding which runs around it above the three lower drawers, and the space between this and the writing-table is taken by two short drawers, but it has no well with a slide like the desk in Illustration 96. The arrangement of the small drawers and compartments is the same as in the desk in Illustration 96, and the lacquered pillars form the fronts of drawers which pull out, each side of the middle compartment, which has upon its door a jaunty little gentleman in European costume of the period. The moulding upon the frame around the drawers and the two short upper drawers would place the date of this piece early in the eighteenth century. [Illustration: Illus. 97.—Cabriole-legged Desk, 1720-1730.] The first thought upon seeing the feet of the desk, is that they were originally brackets which were sawed off and the large ball feet added, but it must have been made originally as it now stands, for both the brackets and the balls under them are lacquered with the old “Japan work” like the rest of the secretary. A style of desk of a somewhat later date is occasionally found, generally made of maple. Its form and proportions are similar to those of a low-boy with the Dutch bandy-leg and foot, and a desk top, the slanting lid of which lets down for use in writing. The top sets into a moulding around the edge of the lower part, in the same manner as the top part of a high-boy is set upon its base. Illustration 97 shows a desk of this style in the building of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, labelled as having belonged to William Penn, but which is of a later date than that would imply, as it was made from 1720 to 1730, while Penn left this country in 1701, never to return to it. [Illustration: Illus. 98.—Cabriole-legged Desk, 1760.]