The tablet-eared top is inlaid in the antique manner, with Grecian-fretted ribbons framing a medallioned compartment of conjoined circles, such as featured on a Roman ceiling at Palmyra. With its distinctive parquetry, characteristic handles and restrained rectalinear style, this table à ecrire relates to the oeuvre of Simon Oeben. The younger brother of Jean-Fraçois Oeben, Simon Oeben took over his brother's workshop in the Gobelins as early as 1756, although he was not officially appointed as maître until 1769. Patronised by the duc de Choiseuil and the marquis de Marigny, Simon Oeben's close collaboration with his brother resulted in a parallel stylistic proximity. Related cube parquetry, as well as the laurel-trailed patera-handles, appear on a bonheur du jour from the Fermor-Hesketh collection, sold in these Rooms, 23 June 1988, lot 133, as well as on a commode in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Lyon (illustrated in R. Stratmann, 'Der Ebenist Simon Oeben', Aachener Kunstblätter, 1972, pp. 262-81, fig. 4, no. 5). The strongly neo-classical auricular brass-bound frame of the top, however, is a favoured architectural motif of Jean-François Oeben, as demonstrated on the fall-front of the celebrated sécrétaire in the Louvre, which was supplied to the duc de Choiseuil for his Parisian hôtel and is illustrated on the Bôite de Choiseuil, painted by Louis Nicolas van Blarenberge circa 1770-1 (A. Kenneth Snowman, Eighteenth Century Gold boxes of Europe, London, 1990, pp. 216-7, plates 437-42)