ROLLTOP DESK (BUREAU À CYLINDRE)

Creator(s): Conrad Mauter (Cabinet Maker)

On view in: Marjorie Post's Bedroom

About this object

Conrad Mauter was one of the many cabinetmakers of German descent working in Paris in the eighteenth century. Appointed cabinetmaker in 1782 to the comte d’Artois, brother to Louis XVI, Mauter continued to work through the French Revolution and First Empire. Among his repertoire of simple mahogany pieces with austere lines this desk, with its richly figured mahogany veneer and its lavish decoration of gilt bronze mounts, stands out as an ambitious project.

The roll-top desk is veneered with mahogany and mounted with gilt bronzes. Above the cylinder is a section with three drawers and an openwork railing in a scrolled design. A low-relief oval plaque applied to the roll top depicts a reclining putto on a rocky ground, his right foot resting on a truncated Corinthian capital. The plaque is flanked by crossed sprays of laurel. The desk's curved side panels are mounted with female allegorical figures who wear plumed helmets that terminate in tapering acanthus leaves. A drawer below the roll top is faced with an openwork panel of leafy scrolls and intersecting meanders. On either side of it are two more drawers with simple lock plates in a leaf design. The desk rests on four round, straight, fluted legs that taper downwards to leafy sabots. When opened, a leather-lined writing pad pulls out; above are three simulated drawers, on top of which are another three drawers; 3 cubby holes top the inner structure.

Object name:

ROLLTOP DESK (BUREAU À CYLINDRE)

Made from:

Mahogany -- gilt bronze -- leather

Made in:

Paris, France

Date made:

ca. 1780

Size:

48 1/4 × 59 × 28 3/4 in. (122.6 × 149.9 × 73 cm)

Detailed information for this item

Catalog number:

31.2

Class:

FURNITURE

Signature marks:

STAMP Stamped under right side rail: C. MAUTER

Credit line:

Bequest of Marjorie Merriweather Post, 1973