Louis XVI Cylinder Secretaire with Marquetry, France, 1775

Important, large Louis XVI cylinder bureau, so-called “bureau à cylindre”, made in Eastern France, probably Lyon, ca. 1775: secretary corpus standing on delicate conical rectangular legs with drawer zone consisting of 6 lockable drawers and writing zone above, hidden behind a semicircular lid. The cylinder bureau ends with a low straight top containing two more drawers and has a veneered wooden top. The semicircular lid can be locked in the open position with a key after opening, revealing the pull-out large writing top covered with red felt, as well as five small drawers, 1 of which is lockable, and two narrow storage compartments. While the cylinder is decorated with a central oval medallion with floral bouquet on a herringbone pattern framed with ribbon inlays, the drawer compartments display highly detailed and unusual geometric marquetry in the form of multicolored zig zag patterns, trompe l’oeil fluting, latticework and abstract floral borders. The cylinder escritoire can be attributed to an Eastern French ebeniste because of its strict formal language as well as a rich marquetry based on geometric ornamentation, especially the very small-scale band inlays in combination with a centrally placed floral oval medallion: especially the works of the Lyon ebenist Jean-Henri Kisling (mentioned in the archives for Lyon in 1778, 1779 and 1790) are very close to the furniture presented here with the features discussed. Literature: Bernard Deloche, Jean Yves Mornand: L’Ébénisterie Provinciale en France au XIIIe Siècle et Abraham Couleru, Dijon 2011, p. 75 (Zylinderbureau J.-H. Kisling).