Ormolu mounted marquetry roll-top desk attributed to Bernard

Ormolu mounted marquetry roll-top desk attributed to Bernard
French, c. 1860
Height 107cm, width 116cm, depth 66cm
 
Of the Napoleon III period in the Louis XVI style, with fruitwood and ebony inlaid in bois de citronnier, mahogany and amaranth, with a three-quarter galleried rectangular top above a roll-top, opening to reveal a leather-lined writing slide with four short drawers and five pigeon holes, the frieze centred by a push button drawer mounted with an ormolu panel with cherubs in the manner of Clodion, the sides similarly mounted with panels representing Sculpture, the back veneered to form a centrepiece
 
After the model by Jean-Henri Riesener (French, 1734-1806). This roll-top desk is after a famous model by Jean-Henri Riesener which was made for Marie-Antoinette's new apartments at the Chdes Tuileries in 1784 and now forms part of the collection in the Louvre, Paris. P. Bernard is listed at 4 Passage des Postes, Paris from 1856 to 1876. An almost identical roll-top desk stamped by Bernard, sold Christie's New York, 13 December 1983, lot 412.