Alfred-Emmanuel-Louis Beurdeley table à Écrire Paris, circa 1890

amarante, satiné, sycomore trellis-parqetry with ébène and buis stringing, one frieze drawer, original wood casters, stamped A. BEURDELEY / PARIS to underside.

D. Ledoux-Lébard, Le Mobilier Français du XIX Siècle, pp. 75-82

C. Payne, 19th Century European Furniture, pp. 33-34

D. Alcouffe et al., Furniture Collections in the Louvre, Vol. I, p. 272-273, for a variant 18th century model by Riesener.

The present model is closely related to a table made by J.-H. Riesener delivered in 1783 for the cabinet intérieur of Madame Elisabeth at Versailles, sister to Louis XVI, and now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Louvre has another table by the same cabinetmaker (inv. OA 5162), of the same proportions as the present lot but with octagonal legs.  The latter was in use in the Palais des Tuilleries and the Palais de Compiègne during the 19th century. It is interesting to note that Riesener had his portrait painted by Nicolas-Jacques-Antoine Vestier (1765-1816), posing next to a table of similar form.