Writing table

This writing table has a rectangular top with serpentine sides supported on four tapering cabriole legs, fitted below the top in front with a writing slide with an adjustable easel for reading and with two drawers, one each on the left and right sides. The shaped top is veneered with tulipwood inlaid with a trophy of musical instruments suspended from a tied ribbon, and a butterfly at the upper right. These motifs are enclosed in a double shaped and scrolled frame with rocailles at the corners and with a diapered cartouche at the center of each long side, the whole bordered with rosewood and mahogany, the top with a gilt-bronze molding. The sides are veneered with shaped panels enclosing floral vines on a ground of tulipwood. The legs are each mounted above the knee with a gilt-bronze acanthus-leaf cartouche, with a narrow gilt-bronze molding along the fore edge of each leg, which terminates at the foot with a scrolled and foliated cartouche. Christophe Wolff became a master cabinetmaker in 1755 and ran a successful business in Paris until the Revolution.(1) He was particularly known for his marquetry. The pictorial trophy on the top of this writing table within a double-scrolled border shows the strong influence of the ébéniste Jean-François Oeben (1721 – 1763). Wolff used the motif of a trophy of musical instruments on other pieces, including a bonheur-dujour in the Louvre, Paris.(2) He also made marquetry with chinoiserie subjects (most notably a commode in the Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, with figures after designs by François Boucher [3]) and furniture with elaborate mechanical fittings.

Catalogue entry from: William Rieder. The Robert Lehman Collection. Decorative Arts, Vol. XV. Wolfram Koeppe, et al. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press, 2012, p. 265.


NOTES:
1. Salverte, Francois de, comte. Les ébénistes du XVIIIe siecle: Leurs oeuvres et leurs marques. 5th ed. Paris, 1962, pp. 330 – 31.
2. Dreyfus, Carle. Le mobilier français. [Vol. 1], Époques de Louis XIV et de Louis XV. Paris, 1921, pl. 22.
3. Salverte, pl. LXXI. Two of the engravings by Pierre Aveline (1702 – 1760) after François Boucher are illustrated in Kisluk-Grosheide, Danielle O. “A Japanned Secretaire in the Linsky Collection with Decorations after Boucher and Pillement.” Metropolitan Museum Journal 21, 1986, pp. 139 – 47, figs. 8 (La Terre), 10 (Le Toucher).

Viscount Powerscourt, Powerscourt, County Wicklow, Ireland.