Description

This Italian-style piece of furniture, from the wide-ranging typology of writing desks, is missing its fold-out writing surface that was typical of the Spanish bargueño or bureau.

Decorated in tortoiseshell, brass, and gilt bronze, the piece comprises the desk itself, supported by a table. The table legs and stretchers are heavily turned. It has four small drawers to the front, with striking metal keyhole escutcheons, either side of a larger central drawer. 

The desk rests on the table on six claw-on-ball feet, and comprises three main sections. The left- and right-hand sections both contain ten drawers, identical to those of the table. The central section, which protrudes slightly, also features the same kind of drawer. The uppermost part of the desk comprises a decorative cornice featuring carved plant and animal elements, finished off with six ornamental balls with eagles on top. 

There are two levels to the main body of the desk. The lower level presents a round-arched niche, flanked by Tuscan columns. Inside the niche is a female figure dressed in the Roman style, holding a shield in her left hand and, in her right, possibly an oak leaf (now lost), completing the iconography of Strength. The upper level is decorated with paired metallic elements representing baluster shafts, alongside two atlantes in the form of estipites; in the centre, we find an oval-shaped escutcheon with an angel at either side, together holding a crown aloft.