A FRENCH ORMOLU-MOUNTED MAHOGANY AND PARQUETRY WRITING DESK
Lot 168

A FRENCH ORMOLU-MOUNTED MAHOGANY AND PARQUETRY WRITING DESK

OF LOUIS XVI STYLE, BY MELLIER & CO., LONDON, LATE 19TH CENTURY

Closed7 February 2012

Price Realised

GBP 6,000

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A FRENCH ORMOLU-MOUNTED MAHOGANY AND PARQUETRY WRITING DESK
OF LOUIS XVI STYLE, BY MELLIER & CO., LONDON, LATE 19TH CENTURY
Decorated with boxwood strung trellis-parquetry; surmounted by a fixed cartonnier with white marble top above an arrangement of pigeon-holes and drawers, inset with a gilt-tooled green leather writing surface, the frieze with three drawers, on square tapering legs and leaf-cast sabots, the lockplates stamped 'MELLIER & CO. LONDON'
39 in. (100 cm.) high, overall, 29 in. (75 cm.) high, excluding cartonnier; 51 in. (130 cm.) wide; 28 in. (71 cm.) deep

Specialist note

This desk in the Louis XVI style is inspired by the cylinder bureau with mother-of-pearl trellis marquetry made by Riesener for Marie-Antoinette's boudoir at Fontainebleau in 1786.
Operating from premises located at 60 Margaret Street and Cavendish Square, London, the Anglo-French firm of Mellier & Co. is recorded as having taken over the family business of Monbro when the latter ceased trading in the 1880s (see C. Payne, 19th Century European Furniture, Woodbridge, 1981, p. 40). They were amongst the English manufacturers who exhibited at the 1904 St Louis World's Fair.