Louis XV Fiddle Desk Writing Table in Boulle Marquetry, 1870, France

Elegant Louis XVI style desk table from the Napoleon III period, made in brass Boulle marquetry style on a solid black dark wood veneer background. Beautiful marquetry with foliage ...

This Desk is a beautifully designed piece, inspired by the Nordic design with a pinch of boldness. It can be described as a mental energy that drives you to work, read, relax. It def...

Table desk with drawbars decorated with bronzes from the Napoleon III period and Boulle style. Beautiful desk with 2 opening side parts. Full walnut veneer. Important ornamentation o...

Louis XVI style Beautiful table desk, France 19th Century Napoleon III period. With 2 hidden sliding extensions. Full walnut veneer. Important ornamentation of gilded bronzes with ...

Very elegant, Artist's Design creation console table handmade with straw marquetry. Made in France. Beautiful Stainless steel base. And straw marquetry top tray radiating pattern in...

Extremly elegant black ebony console table creation, all handmade, the highest quality and no le materials. Delicate details. Marquetry in mother of pearl and maple wood inlay. Be...

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...

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...

Antique Louis XV style bureau plat writing desk, rosewood and Ormulu mounts, raised on cabriole legs. Tooled leather top. Dimensions: 43” W x 31.5” H x 25.5” D Side drawers (2): ...

Great French writing desk of the first half of the 20th century. Louis XV style furniture in walnut, mahogany and oak richly adorned with gilded and chiseled bronze and brass of exce...

A Recently refinished French transitional kidney-shaped desk. 19th century French transitional design between Louis XV and Louis XVI is timeless, elegant, and understated it works we...

A fine French kidney shaped bureau plat desk, having an inset beige leather top. Two side drawers over cabriole legs with ormolu mounts.