Object Description
Unusual Transition style marquetry and gilt bronze double sided writing desk
French, early 20th Century
Height 98cm, width 130cm, depth 94cm
This rare doubled-sided writing desk is a superb piece of nineteenth-century French decorative art, which, in its style and form, recalls desks from late in the reign of Louis XV. The desk is double sided, with one side a mirror image of the other. Each side of the desk features a drop front slope above an apron inset with three frieze drawers. The drop front on either side opens to reveal a leather writing surface and various drawers and cubbyholes. The veneered wooden surfaces of the desk are profusely adorned with floral marquetry, while the desk is set with a host of fine gilt bronze mounts, including foliate frames around the drop fronts and the face of each drawer. The desk is raised on cabriole legs, each adorned with a gilt bronze foliate sabot and acanthus leaf mount to the shoulder.