Object Description
An Ormolu mounted Louis XV style kingwood and marquetry desk by Zwiener
French, Late 19th Century
Height 77cm, width 140cm, depth 76cm
This superb piece, of exceptional quality and design, is a gilt-bronze mounted kingwood desk in the luxurious Louis XV style, and is embellished with beautiful marquetry decoration. It was made by Joseph-Emmanuel Zwiener, a German-born French ébéniste of the highest calibre, active in the second half of the nineteenth century. This work is exemplary of his most common practice of recreating Louis XV pieces in public collections, and enhancing them with his own Rococo predilections.
The desk is in beautiful condition and it is fitted with a replacement leather top. The gilding and ornamentation is extensive and exquisite, particularly on the mounts for the drawers and on the lining of the curved bombe legs. The kingwood is rich and luxuriant, and the front of the desk is decorated with refined and elegant marquetry floral motifs. Effortlessly combining materials, as it does aesthetic beauty and practicality, in sum, it constitutes one of the finest works from one of the very finest of makers.