Fall-Front Desk

Attributedattributed to Pierre Roussel (French, 1723-1782, master 1745)

Formerformerly attributed to Jean-François Oeben (French, 1721 - 1763, of German birth)

Additional Title(s)

Secretary
Secrétaire à Abattant

ClassificationsDECORATIVE ARTS

Dateca. 1760

Mediumoak carcase veneered with marquetry of stained and natural-colored boxwood on sycamore ground with boxwood stringing and purplewood border; gilt-bronze mounts; brèche d'Alep marble top

Dimensions57 1/2 × 38 1/2 × 15 3/4 in. (146.1 × 97.8 × 40 cm.)

DescriptionThe top is composed of a breche d'alep marble slab, beneath which a drawer, with Greek key pattern ormolu mount on a green ground, traverses the width of the secretary. Beneath the drawer is the pull-down front door inlaid with marquetry of a violin, music books, and other musical attributes, arranged upon a shelf from which a green leafy garland depends, intertwined with a yellow formal scroll work, the whole surrounded by a bower of leaf scrolls, all posed beneath a canopy from the sides of which proceed two elaborate bordered draperies with tassels and over which is a flower spray. Round the panel is a formal rectangular key pattern border in green and dark brown woods. The inside of the front pull-down door is lined with a green leather cover, forming a writing desk, above which are fitted five pigeon holes and six small drawers, one fitted with inkwell, pen tray and sand box. Beneath, the secretary is composed of a cupboard with three compartments behind two doors inlaid with urn-shaped vases of flowers within rectangular borders en suite with the upper door. Beneath the cupboard doors a formal shaped apron enriched with an ormolu scroll mount. The sides of the secretary are inlaid with marquetry panels of flower bouquets separated by ormolu channelled and sanded mounts, and at the top the ormolu key pattern frieze is continued, also on a green ground. The corners of the cabinet are cut and inlaid with flower sprays. Four ormolu keyhole mounts. Four slightly splayed feet, the two in front fitted with ormolu caps.

InscribedStamped on the back right corner of the carcass under the marble: J.F. OEBEN, each letter imprinted separately using modern characters Drawers are numbered 1-6. There are two paper labels. The first one reads, "A LARGE OLD FRENCH UPRIGHT SECRETAIRE of the LOUIS XVI PERIOD inlaid with marquetry from the Collection of the THE MARQUIS DE COLBERT. Second label: EDOUARD COLBERT, French General, a peer of FRANCE, born in Paris 1774, died in 1854. His brother AUGUSTE, French General, born in Paris in 1777. Killed in Spain in 1809."

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Adele S. Browning Memorial Collection, gift of Mildred Browning Green and Honorable Lucius Peyton Green

Status

Not on view

Label TextThis secrétaire à abattant (fall-front desk) can be attributed to Pierre Roussel on the basis of the iconography and quality of its marquetry panels and its limited use of comparatively simple bronze mounts. Roussel became master in 1745, owned a workshop and shop in the faubourg Saint-Antoine in Paris, and, according to his probate inventory, produced, sold, and at times restored a wide range of commodes, secrétaires, and tables. Stylistically, this secrétaire is a transitional piece, dated slightly earlier than a group of secrétaires from Roussel's workshop with nearly identical pictorial marquetry panels. It is distinctive amongst his output in its rounded and angled corners, curved rococo feet, and restrained employment of gilt-bronze mounts.
The attribution must, however, remain tentative, as any attribution of this piece to an individual workshop is complicated by the often-anonymous practice of subcontracting of both parts and complete pieces of furniture. Furthermore, as discussed in the entry for cat. 15, little is known of the market for ready-made marquetry panels by specialized marqueteurs (inlayers). The stamp was presumably intended to deceive potential buyers into assuming that the pieces was made by the eminent cabinetmaker Jean-François Oeben (1721-1763), whose secrétaires are of an altogether higher order of quality and design.

Object number78.20.63