Indian Parquetry Desk with Turned Legs

Flat as a tabletop, and yet the eye insists on cubes.

This parquetry desk with turned legs comes from Rajasthan, India, and dates to the 20th century. Camel bone and horn cover a body of sheesham wood. Parquetry sets small geometric pieces into a repeating pattern, and here pale bone against dark horn produces stepped cubes that seem to rise from the surface. The pattern covers the top and the front, broken only by three round black knobs. Fluted, turned black legs hold it up. Forty-eight inches long, 24 deep and 30 high.

Paperwork will seem dull by comparison. It was anyway.