Jules Wabbes writing desk Le Mobilier Universel Belgium 1960

Fantastic architectural desk designed by Jules Wabbes and manufactured by Le Mobilier Universel, Belgium 1960. This desk has a solid steel frame, chrome plated. And the wooden parts are veneered with jatoba veneer which has a very nice grain to the wood. This desk has fantastic architectural frame with gliders to support the drawers. The normally inner parts from a desk, Wabbes used as outer parts. By making the construction look fantastic, there was no need to cover everything up, everything could be visible as it was all nice and well made. This is probably designed like this because he wasn’t (like many of his contemporaries) trained as a designer or architect but learned the Craft of designer furniture by necessity. The desk is in very good condition, the chrome plated structure has some normal wear and loss from age and usage. The key is present but only the richt side can be closed with the key.

Jules Wabbes (1919 – 1974) was a professor, architect and furniture designer. When Wabbes was 24, he opened an antiques shop where some of the furniture was in need of restoration. Therefore, he opened a small workshop where he taught himself how to restore furniture. Alongside restoration he also started to design furniture. So from a totally different point of view he designed his furniture. That is probably the main reason why the pieces he designd are so different from similar designs of that period.