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Drop-front secretaire (secrètaire à abattant)

ca. 1770–75
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 539
The form of this secretary, with its pierced pagoda-shaped top, is exceptional in French furniture. Although furniture in the Chinese taste was designed and executed in England during the second half of the eighteenth century, French chinoiserie was almost always limited to the surface decoration. The Oriental scenes in imitation lacquer on the front panels are based on designs for The Four Elements by François Boucher, known from engravings (1740) by Pierre Aveline. The element of fire, apparently the only one for which the original drawing by Boucher exists (now in the Metropolitan), shows a man pouring hot tea into the cup of a seated man who also appears twice on the front of the secretary. Charming tea-drinking scenes formed an important aspect of chinoiserie decoration.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Drop-front secretaire (secrètaire à abattant)
  • Maker: René Dubois (1737–1799, master 1755)
  • Date: ca. 1770–75
  • Culture: French, Paris
  • Medium: Painted and varnished oak, veneered with European lacquer, mahogany, purplewood, gilt-bronze mounts
  • Dimensions: 60 x 26 3/4 x 13 3/8 in. (152.4 x 67.9 x 34cm)
  • Classification: Woodwork-Furniture
  • Credit Line: The Jack and Belle Linsky Collection, 1982
  • Object Number: 1982.60.57
  • Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

More Artwork

More Artwork
Mechanical table à la Bourgogne, René Dubois, Oak, veneered with Japanese Nambam lacquer; rosewood, gilt-bronze mounts, French
Mechanical table à la Bourgogne
René Dubois
ca. 1760
Costume Armor in the Classical Style, Hallé French, Helmet: linen, papier-mâché, bole, gold leaf, graphite; tunic: silk, cotton, metal coils and spangles, metallic yarn, French, Paris
Costume Armor in the Classical Style
Helmet includes original paper label of Hallé
ca. 1788–90
Drop-front secretary (Secrétaire en armoire), Jean Henri Riesener French, Oak veneered with ebony and 17th-century Japanese lacquer; interiors veneered with tulipwood, amaranth, holly, and ebonized holly; gilt-bronze mounts; marble top; velvet (not original), French, Paris
Drop-front secretary (Secrétaire en armoire)
Jean Henri Riesener
1783
Mechanical table, Jean-François Oeben French, born Germany, Oak veneered with mahogany, kingwood, and tulipwood, with marquetry of mahogany, rosewood, holly, and various other woods; gilt-bronze mounts; imitation Japanese lacquer; replaced silk, French
Mechanical table
Jean-François Oeben
and Roger Vandercruse, called Lacroix
ca. 1761–63
Commemorating the Agricultural Assembly of Amiens, René Dubois, Silver, octagonal, struck, French
Commemorating the Agricultural Assembly of Amiens
Medalist: René Dubois
Factory Paris Mint
1860–79

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