Desk (bonheur-du-jour), veneered with kingwood and mounted with Sèvres porcelain plaques. French or English, mid-19th century

Desk, standing on four cabriole legs, topped with a small upper cabinet built as a separate case. The desk has one frieze drawer, enclosing a writing slide. The upper cabinet is fitted with two small cupboards flanking an empty compartment.

The desk is of oak and beech. The desk and cabinet are veneered with kingwood on their front faces and sides, and rosewood on their backs. The legs are veneered with kingwood and purplewood. The mounts are of gilded brass.

The frieze drawer is mounted with three porcelain plaques; the upper cabinet mounted with four plaques (one on each cupboard door and one on each side of the case). The plaques are painted with bouquets of flowers, inside apple green borders. They are marked with the date letter K (1763), and one of them bears the mark of the flower-painter Tandart.

Bequeathed by John Jones

This writing desk was bequeathed to the Museum in 1882 as part of a large collection owned by the military tailor John Jones. While in his collection, Mr Jones kept this desk in the drawing room of his London house. It was displayed alongside two other bonheurs-du-jour, also mounted with porcelain plaques.

This writing desk is of a type known as a bonheur-du-jour. Bonheur-du-jours were made in Paris from the 1760s. They are characterised by the combination of lower case with writing surface, and a smaller upper case enclosing drawers. Bonheur-du-jours mounted with porcelain plaques were popular in Paris in 1760s and 1770s.

This writing desk is an excellent example of 19th-century furniture manufactured in an 18th-century French style. The desk uses the form of the bonheur-du-jour, a type of writing furniture popular in France in the 1760s and 1770s. Althought the case dates from the 19th century, the cabinetmaker has incorporated fine Sèvres plaques dating from 1763.

1038-1882