Lot 60
60
AN ORMOLU-MOUNTED PLUM-PUDDING MAHOGANY BUREAU A CYLINDRE of Empire style, the rectangular top with galleried back centred by a clock in a plinth shaped case and with scrolled cast dial, above three frieze drawers mounted with a charioteer, the cylinder enclosing a fitted interior with blue leather-lined writing surface, pigeon-holes, drawers and an arched open centre, flanked by shelves, on twin lyre-shaped end-supports joined by turned stretchers and on plinth bases, last quarter 19th Century

Details
AN ORMOLU-MOUNTED PLUM-PUDDING MAHOGANY BUREAU A CYLINDRE of Empire style, the rectangular top with galleried back centred by a clock in a plinth shaped case and with scrolled cast dial, above three frieze drawers mounted with a charioteer, the cylinder enclosing a fitted interior with blue leather-lined writing surface, pigeon-holes, drawers and an arched open centre, flanked by shelves, on twin lyre-shaped end-supports joined by turned stretchers and on plinth bases, last quarter 19th Century
50¾in. (125cm.) wide; 54in. (137cm.) high; 24½in. (62cm.) deep
Further details
The desk's 'poetic' ornament, comprising Grecian lyres, laurel wreaths and an 'antique' tablet of Apollo the Sun God, relates to the style introduced by Percier and Fontaine's Receuil de Décorations Intérieurs, 1901. Its base derives from that of an early 19th century dressing table in the Royal Collection, Madrid. (See L. Feduchi, Colecciones Reales de España, Madrid 1967, fig. 346). Combined with a roll-top section, which is in the manner of an early 19th century desk at Malmaison, it reflects the 'Second Empire' antiquarian style introduced during the reign of Napoleon III

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