The Age Of Rococo - Part 6

Many pieces of handmade furniture were made expressly for the use of women, the ladies equivalent of the bureau-plat was the bureau-de-dame, a small desk with sloping fall-front, whose entire exterior sometimes consisted of gently undulating curves. Closely related was the secretaire-a-capucin with 'tumble over' top. When closed, it appeared to be a small table with exceptionally deep frieze which concealed a nest of drawers; the fold-over top is opened forwards, and a spring mechanism releases the bank of drawers which spring up into position. Makers of these ingenious mechanical contrivances including Roger van der Cruse, who was admitted to the guild as a master cabinet-maker in 1755, and his brother-in-law J.F. Oeben (c.1720 - 1763), a South German who settled in Paris, becoming 'ebeniste-du-roi' in 1754, a post he held until his death. Nevertheless he dies bankrupt. Two of his assistants, J.F. Leleu and J.H. Riesener, both paid court to the widow Oeben. Riesener (1734 - 1806) was the successful suitor and took over the business.

A wide variety of small tables came into being, some as toilet tables with mirrors which conveniently disappeared from view when, as was the fashion at the time, the bedchamber was being used for entertaining guests. This type was known as a bureau-de-toilette and doubled as a dressing and writing table. Lighting depended on candles, and a special stand for the candelabrum, called a 'gueridon', was deemed essential in a well appointed room. The gueridon evolved from the Baroque stands carved to represent slavery, which were popular in 17th century Italy. Gueridon was a name of a Moorish slave whose exploits were celebrated in Provencal folk songs.

An occasional table, small enough to be portable (although often proving surprisingly heavy to lift) was the 'table ambulante'. A celebrated maker of these small pieces of non fitted furniture was Charles Topino (c.1725 - 1789), who was born at Arras in Northern France and settled in the Faubourg St Antoine in about 1745, where he is said to have lived a bohemian way of life. he specialised in a distinctive kind of marquetry in which flower vases and inkstands with quill pens are featured. By the time he had started work in Paris, there was already a reaction developing against the frivolity of the Rococo, and most of his work belongs to the transitional period between the styles associated with the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI.
Topino was among the last of the great Louis XV cabinet-makers to abandon the cabriole leg. Typical of the transitional pieces was the bonheur-du-jour, a lady's writing table with a superstructure of little drawers.