A FRENCH ORMOLU-MOUNTED BRASS-INLAID, TORTOISESHELL 'BOULLE' MARQUETRY AND EBONY BUREAU PLAT

The present bureau is based on the celebrated model executed by Charles-André Boulle (1642-1732) circa 1715 for the Duc de Bourbon, at Chantilly. The historically significant bureau-plat was seized during the French Revolution and kept at the Garde-Meuble until 1834 when it sent to Versailles and placed in the Cabinet du Conseil by Louis-Philippe until it was eventually returned to Chantilly in 2012 and housed in the musée Condé (inv. VMB 960). An elevation drawing for a nearly identical bureau-plat by Boulle and drafted by Gilles-Marie Oppenord shows a slight variation to the central frieze drawer from the example executed for the Duc de Bourbon, which is less wide and supplemants the mask escutcheon with a less elaborate shield-form escutcheon, and which is overall closer in design to the present lot. This design is now in the collection of the Cooper-Hewitt, New York (inv. 1921-22-196).
Mathieu Befort, dit Befort Jeune, was the son of Jean-Baptiste Befort (d. 1840), who established his Paris workshops in 1817 in the faubourg Saint-Honoré. He was a brother of Bernard Befort, ébéniste-marqueteur and 'antiquaire' and like him specialised in 'meubles de Boulle,' as seen with the present lot. The firm received a medal at the 1844 Exposition des Produits de l'Industrie française, and was recorded at Neuves-Saint-Gilles from 1844 until 1880.