LIEGE, FIRST QUARTER 18TH CENTURY, RECONSTRUCTED IN THE LATE 19TH/EARLY 20TH CENTURY

With its tiered eight-legged construction, rectilinear lines, and contrasted ebonised and walnut 'strapwork' marquetry, this bureau à gradin is characteristic of the Liège production of the first half of the 18th Century. T. Wolvesperges illustrates a related bureau à gradin executed circa 1720-30 and featuring comparable strapwork inlay to the drawers (T. Wolvesperges, Le meuble en Belgique, 1500-1800', Bruxelles, 2000, p.169, fig.67), while further related examples - among which one featuring the crowned initials B and G and formerly in the château de Bormanville - are illustrated in Le meuble liégois à son âge d'or (le XVIIIe siècle)', Liège, 1990, p.146, figs 258 and 259. A closely related bureau was sold Christie's, Amsterdam, 24 February 1999, lot 214.