A FRENCH ORMOLU-MOUNTED TULIPWOOD BUREAU-PLAT

With its pierced rockwork chutes and frieze enriched with bountiful foliate mounts, this impressive bureau plat embodies the essence of the full-blown Louis XV style which Maison Millet was renowned for. While the use of richly-grained kingwood and the presence of sinuous curves are in keeping with the mid-eighteenth century style upon which the bureau is based, the present table also relates to the oeuvre of the celebrated ébéniste Jacques Dubois. Designed as rosettes of swirling rococo form, the mounts applied to the sides of the present bureau are reminiscent of Dubois's signature foliate swirls. Comparable pierced swirling rosettes can be found on a bureau plat by Dubois illustrated in P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Français du XVIIIè Siècle, Paris, 1989, p. 273, as well as on one formerly in the collections of Baron de Redé at the Hôtel Lambert, Paris. A further bureau plat by Dubois with bold and naturalistic acanthus leaves flanking the recessed central drawer, similar to the present lot, is in the collection of the Musée du Louvre (illustrated D. Alcouffe, Furniture Collection in the Louvre, Dijon, 1993, vol. I, p. 150).