Roll-top desk

The cabinetmaker and mechanic Jean-François Oeben designed this new type of furniture piece, the most famous example of which is Louis XV’s desk at Versailles, commissioned in 1761 and delivered by Oeben’s successor Jean-Henri Riesener in 1769. Madame de Pompadour owned a desk very similar to this one (fitted with a lower shelf), remarkable for its small size and the quality of its marquetry decoration of flowers. This piece came from the collection of Comte Boni de Castellane.