Mastering the use of exotic timbers to best display their aesthetic qualities, Bernard II van Risenburgh (maître in 1730, d. circa 1766) excelled in crafting the synergy of delicate and contrasting bois de bout marquetry with an audacious overall design, displayed to dazzling effect in the present lot. This elegant writing table is characteristic of the oeuvre of BVRB II at the height of his career, when he supplied various members of the Royal family and their circle with marquetry and lacquer furniture. Delicate tables à écrire were clearly one of his specialities; examples of this form were supplied in 1752 to Madame de Pompadour for use at the château de Bellevue and another in 1754 to Monsieur Fontferriere, through the marchand-mercier Lazare Duvaux as intermediary.
This writing table is of the same form and design as three other known writing tables by BVRB. All of exceptional quality and of more generous dimensions than other models of writing table by BVRB, this group of tables are all from prestigious global collections. The example most closely related to the current lot is one sold from the collection of Barbara Piaceska Johnson at Sotheby’s New York on 21 May 1992, lot 84, which was formerly in the collection of Paul Dutasta. Of identical form, and with the same marquetry design to the top and the same mounts to the angles, legs, feet and frieze of the table. The second example from this corpus is currently preserved at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles (65.DA.1); it is of the same form, size and design as the table offered here with many identical mounts, excepting the central mount which is not pierced on the Getty example and some extra mounts to each side which are not part of the design of the present lot. While the floral marquetry on the Getty table is by the same hand and closely related to the marquetry on the current lot there are some variations to the marquetry design. The third example belonging to the corpus is currently preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (inv. no. 1976.155.100) and was formerly in the collection of Mr and Mrs Charles Wrightsman. This example also has the same form, design and mounts as the current lot although the Met example is further enriched with an ormolu gallery around the top and though the top and frieze bear the same marquetry design, the Met example is inlaid not with bois de bout but mother-of-pearl and stained horn.
The mounts on these tables are unique in BVRB’s oeuvre excepting the floral mounts on the angles of the tables which are known on only one other piece of BVRB furniture, specifically the secrétaire made for Louis XV at the Grand Trianon and delivered by Lazare Duvaux, currently preserved in the Musée de Tessé, Le Mans (Inv. 1906.29.66). As pointed out by Daniel Alcouffe, Lazare Duvaux also delivered two tables of this type, with three sliding writing surfaces ('tablettes'). One delivered to Madame de Pompadour for use at Bellevue in 1752 was described thus:
“1020 [ . . . ] Une table à contours en bois d’acajou plein, avec trois tablettes qui se tirent, garnie de boutons & chaussons dorés d’or moulu, garnie de roulettes dans les pieds, 112 l.”
A second table of this type delivered in 1754 to a Monsieur Fontferriere was described thus:
“1844 [ . . . ] Une table à contours aussi plaquée en bois de rose, avec trois tablettes qui se tirent, 90 l.”
While these two tables cannot be definitively identified and with no version in mahogany known in any case, these records show that this form appealed to the most discerning collectors and marchands merciers in 18th century France.
As demonstrated by this table, BVRB has been credited with reviving the fashion for floral marquetry decoration on furniture, a taste which had been out of favour since the Régence period. Indeed, the first deliveries of floral marquetry furniture to the Garde-Meuble were by the marchand-mercier Thomas-Joachim Hébert in 1745 for the Dauphin and the Dauphine at Versailles, and these were almost entirely by BVRB, embellished with his characteristic bois de bout marquetry of end-cut floral trails in kingwood on a bois satiné and, subsequently as in the present lot, on a tulipwood ground.