A Russian mahogany and ebony secrétaire à abattant Neoclassical, 19th century

with a stepped top above a frieze drawer and a hinged fall front opening to a fitted writing interior with ten drawers flanking a central mirror hiding four further secret drawers, reverse of mirror labelled with the coat-of-arms, above three long drawers, all flanked by cut corners and on block feet

According to the text on the backside of the secretaire the famous Russian historian and writer Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin (1766-1826). His greatest work is History of the Russian State (1818-24) but his earlier Memoir on Ancient and Modern Russia, written in 1810-11, became the first popular printed history of Russia.  

 

The secretaire shows on various drawers text written in the Cyrillic language in ink and in pencil