Rolltop Desk & Swivel Chair (retired)

My Backstory: I've always admired Kit's desk as one of the nicest, most intricate pieces of school furniture that AG offered when it hit the market. Unfortunately, my parents weren't really into buying stuff from the company due to the cost (not that I can really blame them), so I never expected to get it and set my young-collector sights elsewhere. When I rediscovered my love for AG in my mid-20's, my husband also developed an enthusiasm for the dolls and their accessories. We visited the AGP Columbus when it opened and he was blown away by Kit's desk and chair! He wanted to get it there and then for me, but we were only just starting off at the time and were short on cash, so I turned down the offer. Skip ahead four years to 2017 and there's a big box under the Christmas tree - it was the desk and chair! He'd remembered that I'd wanted it and had searched eBay (since AG had retired it by then) to find the perfect one. It'll always hold a place near and dear to my heart for that reason alone But enough of that...onto the review!

The Desk: This is a seriously cute, well-made piece of furniture. I've seen (human sized) rolltop desks in person and this seems to be the perfect miniature of it. The rolltop actually works, which alone impresses me, and there are several little drawers and a writing shelf that pulls out. As a particularly clumsy individual, I can appreciate that the drawers and shelf don't detach easily, which I'm sure helps them hold up to play. It feels super solid in construction - I'm always careful with my doll stuff, but I can also see it doing just fine with a child actually playing with it - and genuinely seems like a real piece of furniture shrunk down for doll usage. I currently have her school supplies set up on it and it looks very cute.

My only complaints are the scale and the rolltop. Others have mentioned that Kit (or any 18 inch doll) towers over the desk. I haven't actually read her books (shame on me!), so I don't know if it's meant to be maybe be a child's version of a proper rolltop desk that she was given at some point as a child, but either way the scale looks off to me when displaying it. I was also a little sad to discover that none of her school supplies properly fit into the cubbies above the desk. The cubby drawer and lower drawers are suitably big enough to hold stuff, but the cubbies won't hold anything that I currently have. Additionally, the rolltop feels a little fragile. It's possibly stronger than it feels, but I'm always worried about either breaking off one of the handles or pulling the whole thing apart. I've never played with any of the real rolltops I've encountered, so maybe this is accurate, but it makes me afraid to actually close and open the desk.

The Chair: The chair is a doll-sized swivel chair, which is fantastic! It supports the doll wonderfully and fully swivels. It even has the mechanics of a real chair underneath (they don't work like a real chair, but it's a nice touch nonetheless). I can't ask for much more in a doll chair!

All in all, I give Kit's desk and chair a very solid A. It'd be an A+ if not for the scale problems and delicate feeling of the rolltop. I'm still very happy to have it in my collection!