French Cylinder-Curtain Desk, circa 1830. Stamp of Charles-Guillaume WINCKELSEN (1812 – 1871)
This beautiful cylinder-curtain desk is the work of a talented cabinetmaker. The kingwood, satinwood and rosewood veneers rest on a Hungarian oak frame; everything in this desk is exceptional.
Surprisingly, this piece of furniture was made from a chest-of-drawers (which we imagine to be “sauteuse” because it is perched on high feet). Marked with the iron ” Charles-Guillaume WINCKELSEN “, this desk was created in the workshop of this cabinetmaker recognized and installed at 21 rue Saint-Louis in the Marais, Paris. The strong influences of Guillaume Beneman (1750 – 1811) and Jean-Henri Riesner (1734 – 1806) can be recognized in this desk.
In a style called “à la grecque”, the curtain opens on several drawers, a leather covered tray gilded with a small iron and a writing set with its inkwell. The whole is perfectly symmetrical and decorated with very elaborate gilded bronzes. The two putti are the work of the goldsmith Joseph-Nicolas Langlois. Finally, let us note that Jacques Lafitte (president of the council of ministers of Louis-Philippe) ordered several pieces of furniture to Winckelsen precisely at the time when ours was made, which is in perfect condition.
