In the Louis XVI style, decorated overall with floral-headed lozenge parquetry, the shaped bleu turquin top above an ormolu-mounted frieze drawer, the front angles with carnations, the fall-front inlaid with a later gilt-tooled leather writing surface enclosing a fitted interior with one large shelf above three cubby holes and four short drawers, above conformingly decorated doors, the interior with a single shelf, the apron with a single foliate mount, on square bracket feet, stamped four times 'A BEURDELEY'
51¹⁄₂ in. (31 cm.) high; 34³⁄₄ in. (88 cm.) wide; 15³⁄₄ in. (39.5 cm.) deep

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Lot Essay

The excellent quality of this secretaire epitomises the production of Emmanuel-Alfred (dit Alfred II) Beurdeley.

THE BEURDELEY DYNASTY
Jean Beurdeley (1772-1853) founded a celebrated shop in Paris at the pavilion de Hanovre on the corner of rue Louis-Legrand and boulevard des Italians, establishing the family's reputation as a purveyor of fine furniture in the French capital. In 1840, Louis-Auguste-Alfred (dit Alfred I) Beurdeley (1808-1882) officially succeeded his father and established workshops at 20 & 24 rue Dautancourt to create a wide variety of furniture and objects which both reprised the work of 18th century masters and were extremely original in their own right. Louis-Auguste-Alfred. Louis-Auguste-Alfred's son, Emmanuel-Alfred (dit Alfred II) Beurdeley (1847-1919) succeeded his father in 1875.
Beurdeley was referred to as ‘a favourite of the aristocracy’, providing furnishings for the duc d'Aumale at the Chateau de Chantilly and for Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie at the Tuileries Palace. In addition to the French nobility, Beurdeley’s patrons incuded the Rothschild family. In 1872 the firm sold a variety of objects, including an important marquetry cabinet now attributed to André-Charles Boulle, to the newly knighted Sir Richard Wallace for a total of 260,000 francs (C. Payne, Paris Furniture: The luxury market of the 19th century, 2018, p. 270). The Beurdeleys were thus not only making new furniture, but evidently selling and restoring earlier pieces as well. Alfred Beurdeley visited the Wallace Collection on the 21 June 1882, his signature ‘A Beurdeley’ is entered in the Visitor’s Book in his own handwriting, interestingly on the same day as Baron Nathaniel de Rothschild. It would be logical to assume that this was Alfred Emmanuel, and not Alfred père who died in November 1883.