A French Amaranth, Tulipwood and Parquetry Bureau en Pente of the Early Louis XVI Period
It bears the stamp of Pierre Boichod, an ébéniste who became maître in 1769. Beneath the shallow slope-front, which is bordered with a wide gilt-bronze band cast with flower heads, the interior is fitted with drawers and inlaid with sprays of flowers. There are no drawers in the urn-decorated frieze and access to the considerable storage space behind it is through a lidded well in the bottom of the writing compartment. Thus a single key secures the whole. Small bureaux of this kind (it is only 2ft 11in (64cm) wide) are often known as bureaux de dame, but slope-front examples are more common in Louis XV style.