Unusual Transition Style Marquetry and Gilt Bronze Double Sided Writing Desk

French gilt bronze and marquetry writing desk after Cressent. French, late 19th century Measures: height 79cm, width 134cm, depth 76cm This very fine desk was retailed by the celebrated English retailers Edwards & Roberts and was designed and crafted in France in the manner of Charles Cressent, who worked during the early eighteenth century in the Régence style. The desk is crafted from rich dark wood finished with chequerboard marquetry and fixed with gilt bronze mounts. The desk features a flat tabletop bordered in gilt bronze, which is raised above an apron and four cabriole legs. The apron features three drawers to the front, each affixed with gilt bronze mounts in a foliate style and modelled as theatrical masks, while the sides of the apron are affixed with gilt bronze grotesques...

Rococo style writing desk mounted with gilt bronze French, late 19th century Measures: Height 78cm, width 134cm, depth 64cm This superb ...

This beautiful desk, beautifully finished in kingwood, leather and gilt bronze, is a fantastic piece of 19th century French design in the Louis XV style. Elegant, beautifully crafted...

Louis XV style gilt bronze mounted writing desk by Poteau French, late 19th century Size: Height 78cm, width 180cm, depth 87cm This beautiful Louis XV style writing desk is rais...

This elegant writing desk was created in France in the late 18th century, during the reign of King Louis XVI (1774-1792). The desk is designed in a refined neoclassical style which w...

Antique English gilt bronze and marquetry desk by Donald Ross English, c. 1890 Measures: Height 75cm, width 108cm, depth 63cm This elegant mahogany writing desk by Donald Ross f...

A magnificent and very rare Régence style marquetry inlaid grand bureau plat or writing desk. Inscribed to the carcass 'Moreaux 72'. Dating from the second half of the nineteenth century this magnificent and very rare bureau plat has finely cast rocaille gilt-bronze mounts and is decorated overall with truly breath-taking seventeenth century marquetry, depicting fantastical townscapes, knights, soldiers, hunting and architectural-scenes. Of serpentine rectangular form the top is veneered with superb marquetry panels within a foliate scrolled border and a rocaille shell-cast gilt-bronze surround, both sides featuring a recessed central drawer flanked on each side by a drawer applied with male and female terms, scrolled handles, and reserves with conforming drawers; the bombé sides are centred by foliate scrolls, and the whole raised on cabriole legs headed by cartouches with foliate entwined chutes terminating in scrolled sabots. Of impressive scale this fine bureau plat, in the manner of a partners desk, features working drawers to each side. This model of bureau plat was made by a small number of celebrated Parisian cabinet makers in the second half of the 19th century including Beurdeley, Cremer and Befort Jeune. It is incredibly rare to see this model of bureau plat inlaid in marquetry. The exceptional quality and style indicate the use of older reused marquetry, almost certainly dating from the late 17th century and originating from the Augsburg region of Germany. Similar models but lacking the exceptional marquetry inlay can be found in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch at Bowhill, and the Earl of Normanton at Somerlely. Christopher Payne notes that the latter was part of a pair sold by the London dealer Toms & Luscombe in 1871. He illustrates the present bureau plat in his book ‘European Furniture of the 19th Century’ (p. 88-89), along with two related desks minus the marquetry inlay (p. 92 -93). The exceptional and highly complex marquetry inlay and intarsia work, that sets this important bureau plat apart from other extant examples, would originally have formed the decorative panels of a late 17th century table cabinet, almost certainly ascribable to the Augsburg region of Germany. Augsburg emerged from the middle of the 16th century as the German centre of luxury cabinet making for the international market. In particular, the development of marquetry contributed to this prominent position, favoured by the ready availability of indigenous woods and the reputation that Augsburg had the best craftsmen able to cut thin layers of veneers in the most intricate motifs (C.S. Wood, ‘The Perspective Treatise in Ruins: Lorenz Stöer, Geometria et perspectiva, 1567’, Studies in the History of Art, no. 59, p. 246). Table cabinets, conceived as a form of Wunderkammer or cabinets of curiosities, were intended as repositories for all manner of wondrous and exotic objects and by the 1550s the grandest cabinets in Europe were being made in Augsburg. Decorated almost entirely with sumptuous marquetry, often depicting perspective views of ruins and fantastical townscapes, they become by the 1590s highly regarded as important diplomatic gifts. Fine Augsburg marquetry panels remained popular throughout the ages and were frequently re-used to create or embellish new items of furniture, such as this magnificent bureau plat. Their inclusion was not only for their highly decorative appeal, but to contemporary eyes, a means by which to imbue a new creation with a sense of true historical authenticity. The importance of such panels is often reflected in the high cost involved in repurposing them. A fine example of this is the celebrated 17th century cabinet on stand...

18th Century French Louis XV Transition Marquetry Gilt Bronze Desk Bureau Plat An 18th century gilt-bronze mounted double-face desk or bureau plat with herring-bone marquetry. The k...

Vintage French Louis XV style marquetry inlay bronze ormolu small writing desk. Item features ornate bronze ormolu, lower shelf with inlaid desk set, satinwood floral inlay throughou...

Beautiful center desk, in Boulle marquetry and gilded bronze ornamentation: mascarons, chiseled spandrels and ingot molds, sabots to finish the curved legs. A drawer opening by a mec...

A very fine French 19th-20th century Louis XV style tulipwood and mahogany marquetry gilt bronze-mounted petit-bureau de dame (secretary). The bombe´ structure surmounted by a pair o...

This exquisite desk, designed in the Louis XV style and originating from the late Napoleon III era. It showcases meticulous craftsmanship through its rich marquetry ornamentation. It...