Mathieu Béfort dit Béfort Jeune b. 1813 A Régence style gilt bronze mounted brass inlay ebony and ebonized bureau plat, Paris, second half 19th century, in the manner of André-Charles Boulle

fitted with a black leather writing surface, the desk fitted with three frieze drawers, one bronze mount has been removed to reveal the mark BF from the bronze master model

This bureau plat, with its recessed central drawer and female mask corner mounts, is based upon a series of celebrated bureaux plats with female masks produced around 1715-20 in the workshop of the most celebrated French ébéniste of the Louis XIV period, André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732). Boulle usually worked in tortoiseshell and brass marquetry, however, 18th century examples are also recorded in amaranth and ebony. Boulle also produced models with satyr masks chutes. Similar desks are in the Wallace Collection in London, the Getty Museum in California, the Frick Collection in New York, and the celebrated model comissioned for the Duc de Bourbon is now in the permanent collection at the Chateau de Versailles.

Mathieu Béfort (1813-1880) known as Béfort Jeune always stamped his work ‘Béfort Jeune,’ or had the reverse of his bronze mounts stamped BJ. He was located at 1 and 6 rue Neuve-Saint-Gilles in Paris from 1844 to 1880.  He was the son of Jean-Baptiste Béfort (1783-1840), who was of Belgian origin and renowned for having supplied furniture for the apartments of the Duc d'Orléans.  His older brother Bernard Béfort was active between 1836 and 1858, which was the date after which Mathieu took over the business until 1878.  As a gifted ébèniste-marqueteur he specialized in Boulle-style marquetry and in particularly high quality work inspired by the work of André-Charles-Boulle himself.  Joseph-Emmanuel Zwiener reputedly took over the Béfort firm circa 1880.