Object Description
A Highly Unusual Louis XV Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Marquetry Writing Desk and Cartonnier.
The clock face signed ‘BRINDEAU / A PARIS’. The lockplate signed ‘VF Paris’.
This unusual writing desk has a bombé shaped cartonnier (an ornamental box for papers usually for placing on a desk), surmounted by a gilt-bronze putto and a cockerel. The top section is inset with a clock above eight tooled green leather fronted drawers with scroll handles, the shaped sides and back finely inlaid with marquetry panels. The lower section has a fall-front frieze drawer with leather writing surface, opening to two small interior drawers. It is supported by four cabriole legs with fine gilt-bronze acanthus mounts.
The distinctive shape and form of the cartonnier bears close comparison to a Louis XV style bureau by Joseph-Emanuel Zwiener which also incorporates eight leather fronted drawers but is surmounted by a pair of gilt bronze putti and a hound. A further related bureau and cartonnier by Boudet is illustrated by D. Ledoux-Lebard in her book ‘Le Mobilier Francais du XIXe Siecle’, p. 95.