Bureau Plat (Primary Title)
Desk (Object Name)

Jean-Henri Riesener, French, 1724 - 1806 (Artist)

ca. 1780s
French
mottled mahogany, ormolu, leather
France
Overall: 30 3/4 × 70 5/8 × 37 3/4 in. (78.11 × 179.39 × 95.89 cm)
2013.169
Not on view
The maker of this bureau plat (flat desk), French master craftsman Jean-Henri Riesener, was the chief supplier of royal furniture to Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. Riesener is usually seen as the most important exponent of the Louis XVI style, as well as one of its creators. Riesener’s style could be extremely refined and luxurious. This plainer, yet architecturally and grandly scaled, desk relates to other similar examples made for the king at Marie-Antoinette’s hameau (farm house) and other sub-palaces at Versailles.
in pencil on bottom: R (?) gauche; Proper left: droit (R?)
Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Endowment and by exchange, gift of Nathalie P. and Alan M. Voorhees
Image released via Creative Commons CC-BY-NC

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