Bureau du Roi
Louis XV’s roll-top desk, with a lock that opens everything with one turn of the key.
Oeben began the work in 1760 and died before it was finished; his journeyman Riesener, who married the widow, signed the desk in 1769. It stands in the king’s study at Versailles and is perhaps the most famous piece of 18th-century furniture.
Materials: Oak and exotic-wood veneer with marquetry, gilt bronze, porcelain plaques
Manufacture: Pictorial marquetry in several woods; the cylinder is moved by a mechanism locked with a single key.
The curved cylinder that rolls back and draws out the writing surface at the same time.
The marquetry with emblems of poetry and science on the sides.