Alfred-Emmanuel-Louis Beurdeley French, 1847-1919 A Louis XVI style gilt bronze-mounted mahogany bureau plat Paris, third quarter 19th century

fitted with a gilt tooled burgundy leather writing surface, one frieze drawer, the Apollo mask is signed BEURDELEY a Paris, the mount has been removed to reveal the By mark from the bronze master model. Most probably lacking its stretcher.

Beurdeley, Louis-Auguste and Emmanuel-Alfred (1808-1882 and 1847-1919). Specializing in reproductions of the most magnificent articles from the Garde Meuble National, the firm exhibited and won awards at all of the major international exhibitions during the second half of the nineteenth  century. The quality and skill employed in production was of exceptional quality; their ormolu mounts with mercurial gilding and hand chasing were often difficult to distinguish from late eighteenth-century examples, and were considered the finest in Paris. The firm was pioneered by Jean Beurdeley (1772-1853), later managed by his son Louis-Auguste-Alfred, and finally imparted to his son Alfred-Emmanuel-Louis in 1875. The firm was established at 32 and 34, rue Louis-Le-Grand, and also owned the pavillion de Hanovre, where it  was based while Alfred-Emmanuel-Louis added two additional workshops at 20 and 24, rue Dautancourt by 1875. The Beurdeley workshops closed in 1896, although still partially active until 1898 and the stock was sold over a number of auctions conducted by the Galerie Georges Petit of Paris. Two auction catalogues of the collection were published in 1895 and sales were held between March 6-8 and May 27-28.

Among Beurdeley's most prestigious clients were Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie, the duc D'aumale, Richard Wallace, the Duc and Princess d'Hamilton, Tsarine Alexandra Féodorovna, The Rothschild and Vanderbilt dynasties and the Metropolitan Club, New York.