Writing table
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1700
Materials
Oak, deal, exotic woods,brass, ivory and turtleshell
Measurements
81.3 x 119.4 x 67.3 cm
Place of origin
France
Order this imageCollection
Saltram, Devon
NT 336773
Summary
A writing table, France, late 17th/early 18th century, veneered with 'Boulle'-work marquetry of exotic woods, brass, turtleshell and small pieces of ivory. Of a type known as a 'bureau Mazarin'. The top with marquetry foliated scrolls, flowers, putti and a vase of flowers upon a table. The desk is fitted with nine drawers and stands on eight square tapered legs interlinked by x-shaped stretchers. The quality of the floral marquetry is very high, albeit faded over the years, and the mounts are visually woven into the overall decoration, being surmounted by small white flowers of ivory. The 'bureau Mazarin' is named after Cardinal Mazarin, regent of France from 1643, the year of Louis XIII’s death, and his own decease in 1661, although many desks were made long after he died. The bureau Mazarin would later be replaced by Louis XIV’s bureau plat.
Provenance
Date and method of acquisition not recorded, but a writing table of this description is listed in the Smoking Room at Saltram in 1924. At Trerice, Cornwall (on loan) and photographed in The Drawing Room (later the Great Chamber) there in guide books published in 1979, 1987 and 1991. Returned to Saltram circa 2009.