Roll-top Desk Front Closed

Although unstamped, this desk can be securely attributed to Riesener on stylistic grounds. It is very similar to the roll-top desk he supplied for Marie-Antoinette’s private apartment at the Tuileries in December 1784, now in the Louvre, and to the cylinder desk veneered with mother-of-pearl supplied by him for Marie-Antoinette's boudoir at Fontainebleau. There are other descriptions in the royal accounts of similar desks by Riesener.

Riesener has used a carefully chosen mahogany veneer to provide the decorative effect; now faded, its colour would have once been much richer and the ‘flame’ effect more pronounced. The candelabra on either side of the desk were to provide light for someone working. At the top of the desk a writing-stand can be pulled out – in his bill for a roll-top desk for Thierry de Ville d’Avray, Riesener described the stand as being intended for writing when standing up.

The desk is remarkably elegant. The simplicity of its design and decoration look forward to the furniture of the following two decades and in 1874, when Sir Richard Wallace lent this desk to the Bethnal Green exhibition, it was catalogued as being early 19th century.

Although unstamped, this desk can be securely attributed to Riesener on stylistic grounds. It is very similar to the roll-top desk he supplied for Marie-Antoinette’s private apartment at the Tuileries in December 1784, now in the Louvre, and to the cylinder desk veneered with mother-of-pearl supplied by him for Marie-Antoinette's boudoir at Fontainebleau. There are other descriptions in the royal accounts of similar desks by Riesener.

Riesener has used a carefully chosen mahogany veneer to provide the decorative effect; now faded, its colour would have once been much richer and the ‘flame’ effect more pronounced. The candelabra on either side of the desk were to provide light for someone working. At the top of the desk a writing-stand can be pulled out – in his bill for a roll-top desk for Thierry de Ville d’Avray, Riesener described the stand as being intended for writing when standing up.

The desk is remarkably elegant. The simplicity of its design and decoration look forward to the furniture of the following two decades and in 1874, when Sir Richard Wallace lent this desk to the Bethnal Green exhibition, it was catalogued as being early 19th century.