Double Desk

This monumental and unique double sided desk was made by Bernard II van Risenburgh, one of the most important Parisian cabinetmakers of the mid 1700s. It has two fall fronts that, when lowered, form writing surfaces and reveal drawers and pigeonholes veneered with marquetry. Finely cast and chased gilt-bronze mounts delineate all the edges of the desk as well as each drawer and fall front. On the latter, bunches of marquetry flowers seem to sprout from the sculptural mounts.The desk was probably made for the fermier général (a type of tax collector) François Balthazar Dangé du Fay; a similar desk is described in an inventory taken at his death in 1777. The desk is also found in the 1795 inventory of his nephew Louis, who was guillotined during the French Revolution.