CIRCA 1840

With its finely chased angle mounts of swags bearing military trophies, the present bureau plat and cartonnier is based on a series of tables produced by celebrated 18th century ébéniste, Jean-François Oeben including a writing table attributed to Oeben or his workshop (c. 1755-1760) in the Dodge Collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts (71.208). This table was likely created for an individual of elevated military status in the 18th century, and is of related form and enriched with nearly identical angle mounts to the present lot (A. Darr et al., The Dodge Collection of Eighteenth-Century French and English Art in The Detroit Institute of Arts, New York, 1996, pp. 41-44). Similar angle mounts can be found on a number of other bureaux plats including one also with a cartonnier illustrated in F. Buckland, `A Group of Bureaux Plats and the Royal Inventories’, The Journal of The Furniture History Society, vol. VIII, 1972, pl. 37. Dating to the Louis Philippe period, the present lot is evocative of the sophisticated and eclectic style of furniture produced under the July Monarchy which reprised the designs of the Ancien Régime – here the rich lacquers and neo-classical mounts – whilst simultaneously imbuing them with new life and functionality.