A REGENCE ORMOLU-MOUNTED ROSEWOOD AND PURPLEHEART PARQUETRY BUREAU EN PENTE
Lot 5

A REGENCE ORMOLU-MOUNTED ROSEWOOD AND PURPLEHEART PARQUETRY BUREAU EN PENTE

CIRCA 1725-30

Closed19 May 2021

Price Realised

GBP 21,250

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A REGENCE ORMOLU-MOUNTED ROSEWOOD AND PURPLEHEART PARQUETRY BUREAU EN PENTE
CIRCA 1725-30
The quarter-veneered slope front opening to reveal a gilt-tooled burgundy leather-lined writing-surface and a conformingly-inlaid purpleheart interior fitted with a single long drawer with five compartments, above a further quarter-veneered writing slide, the shaped frieze mounted with a central rosette to the front and back, foliate-cast handles to the sides and scrolling foliate angle mounts, with red silk-lined rising screen at the back, on cabriole legs terminating in acanthus clasps, the underside numbered '873'
30 ¼ in. (77 cm.) high; 25 ½ in. (65 cm.) wide; 18 in. (46 cm.) deep

Specialist note

This rare and audacious Régence bureau en pente veneered with striking rosewood veneers belongs to a small group of similarly shaped desk all enriched with lacquer panels including:
-a desk from the collection of the duc de Bauffremont, château de Brienne, sold at Christie’s, Paris, 13 December 2006, lot 222, decorated with Coromandel panels.
- a similar desk with similar decoration sold at Sotheby's New York, le 22 mai 1997, lot 169.
- a desk from the collection of Jules Strauss enriched with a Japanese lacquer panel and aventurine decoration (private collection, New York).
These desks share the same Louis XV avant-garde design associated with elements from André-Charles Boulle’s oeuvre such as the distinctive sabots and rosette, also visible on a table attributed to Boulle now in the musée Jacquemart-André (see N. Sainte Fare Garnot, Le mobilier du musée Jacquemart-André, Paris, 2006, cat. 7, p. 66-67). The scrolling handles with beads and acanthus leaves relate to a group of wall-lights branches circa 1720-30 also associated with the celebrated ébéniste, such as the pair offered at Christie’s, London, 15 July 2020, lot 71. The present piece incorporates a rare mechanism concealed under the top and releasing a raising silk screen which was conceived to protect its owner from the heat of a nearby fireplace. This rare technical feature also appear on a similarly shaped table sold at Sotheby’s, Zürich , 24 November 1992, lot 342.