A Rare Dutch Marquetery Secrétaire

Period

1775

Material

oak veneered with amaranth, tulipwood, sycamore, boxwood and bois teinté, interior veneered with mahogany

Sizes

(height) 148.00cm. (width) 43.00cm. (Length) 97.00cm.

Description

A two-door secretaire with an extendable writing desk. Under the writing panel there are four drawers. Above the writing desk are four more, smaller drawers, 16 pigeonholes in different sizes and two high compartments to store letters and documents. The high compartments have rearrangeable dividers.
The outside of the secretaire is decorated with marquetery panels each decorated with a vase. The vases are shaped after designs of Maurice Jacque(s) (ca. 1712-1784).

Literature:
Exhibition catalogue Haarlem 1989. Frans Grijzenhout and Carel van Tuyll van Serooskerken red., Edele eenvoud, Neo-classicisme in Nederland 1765-1800, Zwolle 1989.
Annigje C.H. Hofstede, Meubelkunst, 40 eeuwen meubelgeschiedenis, Utrecht 1989. (the very secretaire is shown on page 174)
Annigje Hofstede, Nederlandse meubelen, van Barok tot Biedermeijer 1700-1830, Zwolle 2004.
Bill G.B. Pallot, Le Mobilier du Musée du Louvre, tome 2, Paris 1993.
Peter Thornton, From & Decoration, Innovation in Decorative Arts 1470-1870, London, 1998.

Provenance:
Firma Z.J. Woudstra & sons, Nieuwe Hoogstr. 4, Amsterdam
From 1928; private collection, Belgium.