Animal Desks

Michael Speaker sculptor

The Rhinoceros Desk is ten feet long, four and a half feet high and 35" wide when the desk is closed and 44" when it is opened.

The outside is covered with over 15,000 Ebony (a black tropical wood) tiles. I used three sizes, the largest being 1/8 inch thick and 3/4 inch on a side.

The ebony tiles were applied to a skin of thin plywood on a system of ribs and struts. This is similar to the way balsa airplane models are made.

The desk is amboyna burl, solid on the drawer fronts and veneer with a French lacquer polish on the desk surface. Drawer pulls are silver. The desk is a fall leaf using traditional Joinery.