Writing Desk "Bonheur-du-jour", mid-19th Century

There are some old furniture that we find beautiful. It would be difficult not to recognize the beauty of this exceptional piece of commissioned furniture.

All in Cuban mahogany, solid, veneers and even in the the woodwork, this this escritoire « à système » is a lady’s desk of a rare elegance. The central bevelled mirror distributes on each side two columns of 4 drawers and covered with a marble top. On the drawers and uprights, on the belt and on the gallery, the gilded bronzes are finely worked in fillets and draperies. Under the mirror, a large central drawer reinforces the perfect symmetry of this classic piece of furniture.

A tray stretches out easily and reveals a writing tablet elegantly covered with green leather gilded with a small iron. The central interlacing motif is reminiscent of the neo-Gothic tastes of an emerging eclecticism. On the left is the inkwell and on the right is the sprinkler. Again on the belt, fine draperies nicely punctuate the top whose fluted legs are raised in gilded bronze and end in toupie feet. The main and only central drawer seems to be three, always with the idea of supporting a symmetry borrowing from neoclassicism. In total, you will count 10 drawers to this lady’s desk in perfect condition and emblematic of the taste of the French mid-nineteenth century.