France, 19th Century, 1870 Bureau-plat - Desk Chinoiserie Lacquered Wood, Polychrome

France, 19th century, 1870
Bureau-plat - Desk
Lacquered wood, polychrome pastiglia and gilded bronzes, H 79 x W 153 x D 85

All-round desk with a mixtilinear shape and in eighteenth-century style, with a leather-belted top, entirely decorated with chinoiserie with depictions of genre scenes and common life within landscapes with buildings and naturalistic elements. The workmanship is in relief and painted in polychrome. The centered side bands are from a large floral rosette in gilded bronze, while the uprights feature winged anthropomorphic figures and zoomorphic goat feet. Rich handles and pochettes in the drawers.

The model of this refined and eccentric desk is to be found among the many examples made in France towards the middle of the eighteenth century under the reign of Louis XV and linked to the prevailing fashion for chinoiserie, a theme that is always current and in vogue, even in nineteenth-century reinterpretations, in full neo-Rocaille taste.
Among the possible sources of inspiration for our table, see among others, a series of works by the famous cabinetmaker Jacques Dubois, who on more than one occasion uses oriental lacquers.