A LOUIS XVI STYLE GILT-BRONZE MOUNTED AMARANTH, SATINWOOD PARQUETRY BUREAU PLAT, AFTER A MODEL BY JEAN-HENRI RIESENER, CIRCA 1880

The present bureau plat of exceptional quality is related to a model for a bureau à cylindre by the French celebrated 18^th century ébéniste Jean-Henri Riesener. The bureau à cylinder was supplied by Riesener for the private apartments of Marie-Antoinette at the Tuileries and is today in the collections of the Musée du Louvre (inv. no. OA5226) and bears an identical base with veneered diamond lozenges and relief gilt-bronze plaques as the present bureau. Delivered in December 1784 at a cost of 6,260 livres, Riesener wrote a lengthy description and underlined that most of the bronze mounts were new models.

There is no doubt that Riesener’s model was extremely influential on 19^th century cabinetmakers as notable copies of the bureau were executed by Beurdeley, Dasson and Linke. Christopher Payne writes ‘the source for copying may well have been the Saint-Cloud exhibition or the Union central des Arts décoratifs exhibition of 1882 where a line engraving of the desk appeared in the accompanying catalogue.’ (C. Payne, Paris Furniture, the luxury market of the 19^th century, 2018, p. 195).