Ladies Writing Desk in Louis XV style * Highlight of the Month

Tru­ly ele­gant ladies writ­ing desk in par­tic­u­lar­ly del­i­cate exe­cu­tion, France around ¹⁸⁸⁰⁄₁₉₀₀.

The fur­ni­ture, made in two parts, is of the high­est qual­i­ty, veneered in rose­wood and adorned with rich mar­quetry. The con­sole-shaped base is raised on four ele­gant, gen­tly curved legs, dec­o­rat­ed with del­i­cate gilt bronze mold­ings, sabots, and dec­o­ra­tive ele­ments, and con­nect­ed in the low­er area by a flo­ral and orna­men­tal inlaid com­part­ment.

In the upper sec­tion of the con­sole is a pull-out and fold-out writ­ing draw­er, which reveals a writ­ing sur­face cov­ered with Alcan­tara and two small draw­ers. Both the writ­ing draw­er and its enclos­ing side pan­els are elab­o­rate­ly craft­ed with land­scape scenes in var­i­ous exot­ic woods. The ele­gant­ly curved upper struc­ture is designed with a lock­able cen­tral door, which, when opened, reveals a com­part­ment veneered in maple burl and designed with a shelf.

Incred­i­bly fine­ly exe­cut­ed in mar­quetry are the large scenic rep­re­sen­ta­tions in the style of the 17^th cen­tu­ry, which we find on both the cen­tral door and the two sides.

The main scene shows us a roman­tic scene, in which we see a noble­man with a sword accom­pa­nied by an ele­gant­ly dressed lady strolling through a beau­ti­ful park. To the left of the cou­ple, we find a young man pick­ing flow­ers, and to the right, a pavil­ion adorned with an armor sculp­ture in the cen­ter. The pavil­ion is sur­round­ed by a small pond, in which the lion masks locat­ed in the pedestal of the pavil­ion spit water.

To the left side of the main scene, we see the lady strolling through the park in ele­gant attire, in her left hand pre­sum­ably the small bou­quet of flow­ers picked by the young man for the gal­lant.

To the right side of the main scene, we find the gal­lant play­ing the lute under a tow­er-shaped bay win­dow, where he is pre­sum­ably court­ing his beloved. The fur­ni­ture is crowned with a small Breche d’Alep mar­ble top, sur­round­ed by an intri­cate­ly worked, gilt brass gallery.

The entire fur­ni­ture is rich­ly adorned with fine­ly gilt bronze appliqués. When design­ing the large scenic rep­re­sen­ta­tions, its cre­ator like­ly had the char­ac­ters from Alexan­dre Dumas’ nov­el ​“The Three Mus­ke­teers,” Count d’Artag­nan and Con­stance Bona­cieux, in mind as mod­els…

A rarely del­i­cate ladies’ piece of fur­ni­ture with elab­o­rate fig­ures inlaid from count­less exot­ic woods and beau­ti­ful­ly gilt bronze appliqués.

A true trea­sure for any lover of fine French fur­ni­ture of the late 19^th century…