Live Auction 8023The Opulent Eye - 500 Years Decorative Arts Europe
A FRENCH ORMOLU-MOUNTED KINGWOOD, SYCAMORE, FRUITWOOD AND MARQUETRY BUREAU À CYLINDRE
Lot 39 THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN 

A FRENCH ORMOLU-MOUNTED KINGWOOD, SYCAMORE, FRUITWOOD AND MARQUETRY BUREAU À CYLINDRE

IN THE MANNER OF JEAN-HENRI RIESENER, LATE 19TH CENTURY

Closed22 September 2011

Price Realised

GBP 11,250

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A FRENCH ORMOLU-MOUNTED KINGWOOD, SYCAMORE, FRUITWOOD AND MARQUETRY BUREAU À CYLINDRE
IN THE MANNER OF JEAN-HENRI RIESENER, LATE 19TH CENTURY
The variegated pink and grey fossil marble top with a pierced three-quarter gallery, above a tambour with a central applique depicting Minerva, flanked by a panel to each side, one emblematic of Geography, the other of Astronomy, enclosing a leather-lined pull-out, five pigeon-holes and four short drawers, the back inlaid with military and naval trophies flanking a central applique, the sides similarly inlaid and each with a slide, above a knee-hole with a frieze drawer flanked by a deep drawer with a sliding tray and two short drawers with floral marquetry, on square tapering cabriole legs headed by foliate-cast clasps with pierced sabots
46½ in. (118 cm.) high; 56¼ in. (143 cm.) wide; 28 in. (71 cm.) deep

Specialist note

This desk is inspired by the bureau de roi, begun by Jean-François Oeben and completed by Jean-Henri Riesener for Louis XV in 1769 (now at Versailles) featuring similar marquetry panels, as well as a bureau à cylindre, also by Riesener, formerly thought to have been made for King Stanislas of Poland, but now identified as being supplied to the comte d'Orsay (now in the Wallace Collection). The present lot is however most similar in form to a secrétaire à cylindre, again by Riesener, made for the apartments of the Comtesse de Provence in 1773, (illustrated, M. Coutinho, 18th Century French Furniture, Lisbon, 1999, p. 215).