Table

The straight lines and tapering legs of this writing table or bureau plat are characteristic for the severe neoclassical style generally practiced by the French cabinetmaker Jean François Leleu. Veneered with tulipwood and mounted with gilt bronze, the chief decoration of this piece are the thirty-two porcelain plaques made at the Sèvres manufacture between 1765 and 1766. A filing-cabinet with clock, now in the Wallace Collection, London, equally embellished with Sèvres porcelain was probably made to match the writing table (forming a standard combination of a cartonnier and bureau plat).



It is thought that the porcelain mounted on both pieces may have been among the seventy small square and rectangular Sèvres plaques purchased by the marchand mercier (or luxury dealer) Simone-Philippe Poirier between July and December of 1766. Paying 12 livres for each individual plaque, Poirier was one of the principal buyers of such porcelain plaques solely intended for the decoration of furniture. The dealer would also have commissioned the gilt-bronze mounts and the clock, while Leleu was responsible for the woodwork of the table and cabinet.



It is possible that the five unmarked square plaques on the right-hand side of the bureau plat, which are slightly larger and more widely spaced than those on the other sides of the table, were added once it was separated from the cartonnier. Since this short end was invisible when the bureau plat was abutting the open-fronted filing cabinet, it may not originally have been decorated with plaques there. Other changes occurred over time as well: two additional legs, once placed on either side of the central drawer, are missing which explains the slight sag in the front apron. The cabinet underwent substantial alterations in the nineteenth century as well.