Lot Essay
This desk in the Louis XVI style is inspired by the cylinder bureau with mother-of-pearl trellis marquetry made by Riesener for Marie-Antoinette's boudoir at Fontainebleau in 1786.
Operating from premises located at 60 Margaret Street and Cavendish Square, London, the Anglo-French firm of Mellier & Co. is recorded as having taken over the family business of Monbro when the latter ceased trading in the 1880s (see C. Payne, 19th Century European Furniture, Woodbridge, 1981, p. 40). They were amongst the English manufacturers who exhibited at the 1904 St Louis World's Fair.
Operating from premises located at 60 Margaret Street and Cavendish Square, London, the Anglo-French firm of Mellier & Co. is recorded as having taken over the family business of Monbro when the latter ceased trading in the 1880s (see C. Payne, 19th Century European Furniture, Woodbridge, 1981, p. 40). They were amongst the English manufacturers who exhibited at the 1904 St Louis World's Fair.