Attribué à Godefroy DESTER (1768 - Paris, 1805... Lot n° 59

BUREAU PLAT EN MARQUETERIE DITE " À LA REINE " Louis XVI period - Paris, circa 1780 Rosewood, holly and sycamore on an oak and fir frame; gilt bronze, brass; leather H. 74 cm, W. 127 cm, D. 60 cm This elegant desk, with its sober and rectilinear forms, opens with two drawers on the front side and two side pulls. The top is covered with its period leather, gilded with small irons and girded with a mold. The whole, supported by four tapered legs, is soberly decorated with four bronze drapery motifs at each corner. The cabinetmaker, whose production was known to be of great finesse, took particular care in assembling the drawers, executed without a vertical crosspiece, thus allowing the marquetry decoration known as "à la Reine" to spread out on all sides of the belt without a median interruption. The use of this marquetry reached its peak during the reign of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, as in the case of the beautiful chiffonier table kept at the Museum Cognacq-Jay (fig.1).