Bureau Plat French, circa 1880, after the model attributed to AndrÉ-Charles Boulle

veneered in contre partie with ebony and brass, the rectangular top with black leather inset writing surface, the corners with acanthus cast and flower head engraved clasps, above three frieze drawers centered with satyr masks, the reverse similarly decorated, on cabriole legs headed by espagnolettes and terminating on acanthus-cast lion-paw feet sabot.

This bureau plat with its recessed central drawer and female mask corner mounts is based upon a series of celebrated bureaux plats with female masks produced around 1715-20 in the workshop of the most celebrated French ébéniste of the Louis XIV period, André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732). They were usually in tortoiseshell and brass marquetry, however, 18^th century examples are also recorded in amaranth and ebony. Boulle also produced models with satyr masks as chutes. Similar desks are in the Wallace Collection in London, the Getty Museum in California, the Frick Collection in New York, and the celebrated model comissioned for the Duc de Bourbon is now in the permanent collection at the Chateau de Versailles.

Another Bureau Plat of exact same form, Boulle decoration, and gilt bronze mounts, but veneered in kingwood, was sold in these rooms November 22, 2005, lot 270, $42,000.

A desk of the same form with very minor variations to the chutes and sabots, attributed to Boulle, was sold, Christie's New York, The Wildenstein Collection, December 14, 2005, lot 15, $2,920,000.