Bureau Plat
by BÉFORT, Mathieu, Gilt broze, ebony, 79 x 158 x 86 cm
This R�gence style gilt bronze mounted brass inlay ebony and ebonized bureau plat was made in Paris in the manner of Andr�-Charles Boulle. It is fitted with a black leather writing surface, the desk is fitted with three frieze drawers.
This bureau plat, with its recessed central drawer and female mask corner mounts, is based upon a series of celebrated bureaux plats with female masks produced around 1715-20 in the workshop of the most celebrated French �b�niste of the Louis XIV period, Andr�-Charles Boulle. Boulle usually worked in tortoiseshell and brass marquetry, however, 18th century examples are also recorded in amaranth and ebony. Boulle also produced models with satyr masks chutes.