A Mahogany Cylinder Desk Richly Adorned With Gilt Bronze Mounts, 19th Century

Center desk
Mahogany, mahogany veneer, gilt bronze and leather
19th century
Circa 1880

Stamped: illegible.

A very beautiful Louis XV style center roll-top desk, after a model by Jean-Henri Riesener (1734-1806), in mahogany and mottled and moiré mahogany veneer with very rich gilt bronze ornamentation. It rests on four lion's paw feet, the uprights adorned with a frieze of pearls and fluting with console-shaped attachments of acanthus leaves and garlands of flowers. It opens with five drawers in the front, each with a handle in the form of a laurel wreath and sunflower buds, embellished with a waterleaf molding. The roll-top reveals a set of compartments, including removable document holders, and the upper section, with three drawers, one of which has a mechanism, reveals a rack-and-pinion writing surface leather-covered. The sides, with drawers and pull-out slides, are lined in leather, and the top is encircled by a gallery of chased bronze with interlacing patterns, egg-and-dart motifs, and gadroons.