Antique French Louis XV Walnut Ormalu Inlaid Ladies Library Vanity Writing Desk

Description

Antique Louis XV / Quinze style petite ladies writing table, desk or bureau . Made of burl walnut with rectangular form featuring marquetry inlaid floral accents, leather top with gallery, tapered cabriole legs with ormolu feet and finished false backside.

Originally an antique desk was a box or board with a hinged sloping surface and a bureau was a flat-topped table with drawers underneath; over time we have reversed the original meanings of 'desk' and 'bureau'.

The earliest form of the antique desk was a bureau which developed in France from the end of the seventeenth century as an alternative to the conventional triad of candlesticks, looking glass and pier table. At first the sloping surface sat on a stand or pillar legs but soon there was a need for a purpose-made writing desk. By the 1690s the writing slope merged with a chest of drawers; antique bureaux are essentially a fusion of two different types of furniture, a writing desk and a chest of drawers. They were very fashionable during the Queen Anne period. By the middle of the eighteenth century knee-hole writing tables and flat-top pedestal desks became fashionable.

Condition

Good structural condition, wear and distressing commensurate with age and use, heavy wear to leather, edge wear, finish / veneer loss,

Dimensions

30.25" x 17.75" x 30"h