A pedestal desk, also known as a tanker desk, is a substantial, flat, free-standing desk that consists of a simple rectangular working surface supported by two pedestals or small cabinets with one or two sizes of stacked drawers and plinths around the bases. A wide central drawer is frequently located above the kneehole space and knees.
A "modesty panel" is sometimes installed to the front of the desk, between the pedestals, to cover the user's legs and knees from anyone else sitting or standing in front, notably in 19th century and more recent examples. A "panel desk" is another name for this version. Kneehole desks, which are smaller and older pedestal desks with such a panel, were frequently set against a wall.
Since the mid-18th century, pedestal desks have frequently had a top inlaid with a large panel of leather (sometimes with a gold- or blind-stamped border) or baize for a writing surface, within a cross-banded border. If the desk has a wooden top surface, it may have a pull-out lined writing drawer, or the pull-out may be equipped with a folding insert to serve as a bookrest.
The pedestal desk first appeared in the 18th century, particularly in England, but gained popularity in the 19th and 20th centuries, outnumbering variants of the secretary desk and writing table in sheer numbers. The French remained loyal to the writing table or bureau plat ("flat desk"), which could be accompanied by a matching paper-case (cartonnier) that stood on it.
The pedestal desk had at least two forerunners: the late-17th-century French bureau Mazarin (a desk named after Cardinal Mazarin) and the Chinese jumu desk or scholar's desk, which Europeans knew almost entirely second-hand, largely from illustrations on porcelain. Unlike the pedestal desk, however, these forerunners had an incomplete stack of drawers and compartments supporting the two ends. On legs, the drawer cases were raised about 15–30 cm (6–12 inches) off the floor.
A pedestal desk becomes a partners desk when it is doubled in size to form a nearly square working surface and drawers are installed on both sides to accommodate two users at the same time. In The Gentleman and Cabinet-Director Maker's (1753–4 and 1762) Thomas Chippendale provides designs for such tables, which were commonly used in libraries, as writing tables.