Nicolas Sageot, Paris around 1720
The furniture is decorated on oak with tortoiseshell and brass. The brass veneer parts show extremely original, fine chiselled ornamentation after the pattern of Jean Bérain (1640-1711) with engraved depictions of people, animals and mythical creatures.
This technique was developed by André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732), who was court assistant to Louis XIV and strongly influenced the furniture style in the royal manufactories in Paris and Versailles.
The "Boulle" technique was also further developed by other ebenists, including Nicolas Sageot (16664731 ), from whom a small group of furniture in this style can be traced. Two almost identical desks by him have survived in the Royal Palace of Stockholm, as well as in the Drawing Room of Berrington Hall, Herefordshire.
Nicolas Sageot was born in 1666, the son of a wine merchant, and can be traced to Paris from 1690, where he opened a workshop in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine in 1706.
Height 80 cm, width 120 cm, depth 70 cm.