Decorative arts
Filing Cabinet
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Although many 18th-century desks survive, their filing systems usually do not, which has often led to a focus on their decorative, rather than utilitarian, nature. In the 18th century, the bureau plat was a highly functional piece, made to facilitate clerical tasks. Its form had developed alongside a growing culture of bureaucracy that took shape as early as the 16th century, when the French crown established a network of offices to administer its domestic policies.
