I just altered the code, and it errorred. I reset it back, and it still errorred.
So I tried it in an error trap, and it worked.
Please try this code snippet.. tested under 10.8.4, new iMac i7
try
tell application "System Events"
get properties of desktop
end tell
on error
tell application "System Events"
set temp to id of every desktop as list
repeat with x from 1 to count of temp
set tempID to item x of temp as integer
get properties of desktop id tempID
end repeat
end tell
end try
>>>> {display name:"iMac", id:69992768, change interval:5.0, name:"iMac", picture:file "Brian's Disk:Users:ozsanta:Pictures:iPhoto Library:Masters:2013:04:02:20130402-092028:IMG_6452.JPG", class:desktop, pictures folder:file "Brian's Disk:Users:ozsanta:Library:Caches:com.apple.preference.desktopscreeneffect.desktop:69992768:DSKiPhotoRootSource-4q19HK5FQXCWo8Lcrz4JLA:", translucent menu bar:false, random order:false, picture rotation:1}