Here's another two fascinating pieces of secret-compartment-havin' furniture, these ones built way before Autodesk and even power tools.

Alfred Emmanuel Louis Beurdeley was a Parisian ebeniste, a cabinet-maker, back in the 1800s. He produced this beautiful "mechanical desk" circa 1880, which appears to have a single center drawer. That one works the way you'd think it does, but there's a bit more to this table:

Cool, no? But wait, it gets better—if we go even further back, about a hundred years or so. Jean-Francois Oeben was an ebeniste in the mid-1700s, and he produced this spectacular piece of bad-assery:

Are you kidding me? How slick is that, especially considering Oeben banged this thing out with hand tools? I would say "shut up and take my money" but these things aren't exactly for sale in my price range. With any luck this post will get popular, and someone like Brian Grabski will spot it, become unable to resist the challenge, and whack up a modern-day version. That center compartment is just begging to be adapted for laptops....