A lady's writing desk - bonheur-du-jour

The table stands on four tapering cabriole legs are shod with bronze. The front of the bottom part conceals three drawers behind a roll-shutter. The front double plate can be folded and thus used as a spare plate for writing. Its inside is lined with red leather, rimmed with gold. There are separate plates on the two sides that can be pulled out. The front of narrower top shows a shelved compartment flanked by two drawers on each side. The compartment is closed by a shutter imitating book saddles. A bronze lattice of standing rhomboid motifs runs along the top.

The bonheur-du-jour type of ladies' writing tables appeared first in Louis XV and Louis XVI's time however, its name arrived only with the end of the 18th century. According to Guillaume Janneau's definition the boneur-du-jour is a small narrow cupboard that rests on a small table. The front of the cupboard either closes with a roll shutter or imitates book saddles ("maniere de bibliotheque") like the piece described above. This table managed to keep its important role both in the Empire castles of the first half of the 19th century and in the interiors of the later Bourbon castles. Its material, technique, function and decoration changed little since earlier models except for the structure and proportions: it became "more rectangular" and the drawer in its frieze became larger.