Fall-Front Desk

This secrétaire à abattant (fall-front desk) can be attributed to Pierre Roussel on the basis of the iconography and quality of its marquetry panels and its limited use of comparatively simple bronze mounts. Roussel became master in 1745, owned a workshop and shop in the faubourg Saint-Antoine in Paris, and, according to his probate inventory, produced, sold, and at times restored a wide range of commodes, secrétaires, and tables. Stylistically, this secrétaire is a transitional piece, dated slightly earlier than a group of secrétaires from Roussel's workshop with nearly identical pictorial marquetry panels. It is distinctive amongst his output in its rounded and angled corners, curved rococo feet, and restrained employment of gilt-bronze mounts.
The attribution must, however, remain tentative, as any attribution of this piece to an individual workshop is complicated by the often-anonymous practice of subcontracting of both parts and complete pieces of furniture. Furthermore, as discussed in the entry for cat. 15, little is known of the market for ready-made marquetry panels by specialized marqueteurs (inlayers). The stamp was presumably intended to deceive potential buyers into assuming that the pieces was made by the eminent cabinetmaker Jean-François Oeben (1721-1763), whose secrétaires are of an altogether higher order of quality and design.