Boulle Brand Sloping Desk (attributed To Nicolas Sageot) - Circa 1730.

Boulle marquetry sloping desk resting on 4 arched legs finished with gilt bronze sabots. It features Boulle marquetry decoration combining red-ground tortoiseshell with gilt brass. We believe this is most likely a veneered Louis XIV Mazarin desk whose rich marquetry was reused around 1730 to create a donkey-back desk that was very fashionable at the beginning of the 18th century. The frame therefore dates from 1730 and the marquetry is from the Louis XIV period, around 1690-1710.

It can be almost certainly attributed to Nicolas Sageot. We can place Nicolas Sageot's beginnings around 1690. We know that by 1698 his workshop was sufficiently developed to employ two people. Nicolas Sageot worked as a freelance worker, Grand-rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine until obtaining his master's degree in 1706. Sageot's prosperity continued to grow; in 1711, upon his marriage to Marie-Brigitte Roussel, daughter of the cabinetmaker Jacques Roussel, he declared he owned 12,000 livres of assets, mainly in merchandise, which is remarkable. In 1720, he was then fifty-four years old, he liquidated his workshop and became a rentier. Several documents attest to this cessation of activity, while also informing us about his production. He entered into two important commercial contracts. The first with Léonard Prieur, "a merchant, coarse haberdasher, and jeweler favored by the Court." Sageot sold him 16,000 livres worth of furniture, the details of which are given in the receipt: domed wardrobes, chests of drawers, desks, all in copper and tortoiseshell marquetry and gilt bronze ornaments. This deal reveals the significant activity of the workshop at the time of the cabinetmaker's cessation of activity. 

We note that Sageot had doubled his assets since his marriage in 1711. This fortune, quite remarkable for a cabinetmaker of this period, is an important element in convincing us of the success of this workshop. Nicolas Sageot's talent is particularly illustrated in the creation of richly inlaid chests of drawers or chests of drawers. His work is largely inspired by the work of Jean Berain, "Designer of the King's Menus Plaisirs" who developed a very rich ornamental repertoire, which allowed Nicolas Sageot to vary his compositions. Nicolas Sageot thus reveals all the facets of the Louis XIV aesthetic embodied by Jean Berain. His workshop, probably preserved by his widow, seems to have survived until the end of the reign of Louis XV. Few of Sageot's works are stamped but they can be attributed to him by comparison with those that are. These are pieces of furniture inspired by Boulle's works, mainly large bookcases, Mazarin desks and chests of drawers. Technical data sheet on request: expert certificate, condition and restoration report, provenance, history of the furniture.