Alfred-Emmanuel-Louis Beurdeley secrétaire à abattant paris, 1880

brêche violette marble top above a frieze drawer, in solid érable, the fall-front in palissandre with a gilt-tooled brown leather writing surface, enclosing an architectural interior in érable and amarante, above a pair of doors revealing a further pair of doors opening with secret spring-released buttons, branded stamp A.BEURDELEY/A PARIS twice to the top of the carcass underneath the marble and a further branded stamp ..Goumain/1932 to the reverse of the left-hand side lower door.

Collection Mme Jean Stern

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

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

A. Pradère, French Furniture Makers, p. 295-303, fig. 341; P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Français du XVIIIe Siècle, p. 323, fig. b, for illustrations of slight variants of 18th century models, circa 1770s, by René Dubois (1737-1799; master 1755).

The en grisaille technique is a method of painting executed entirely in monochrome, using various shades of olive, grey, or buff tints, to represent objects in relief. It is rare to see this type of decoration interpreted by the 19th century admirers of important 18th century furniture. The designs were sometimes painted on friezes and medallions on 18th and 19th century furniture and paneling, to give an illusion of depth and carving.  A bedside table seemingly en suite with the present lot is in a private collection. A related commode en demi-lune attributed to Dubois is in the collection of Alice Charlotte von Rothschild in the sitting room at Waddesdon Manor (see: Waddesdon Manor, The Heritage Of A Rothschiild House, Buckinghamshire, 2002, p. 189).