A Louis XVI secretaire

Attributed to Jean-Jacques Pafart

A mahogany and mahogany veneer desk, with a projecting top adorned with detached columns and dark brass fluting. The upper part opens with a flap, revealing a locker topped by a keyed drawer opening six drawers on either side, four cardboard boxes lined with green morocco. Two doors in the lower section reveal a locker and a safety deposit box.
It stands on four ormolu-ringed toupee feet.
Rich ornamentation in finely chased and gilded bronze, such as dentil angle brackets, ove-motif framing strips, scrapers, Corinthian capitals, rings and sabots.
White veined marble top.
Cloverleaf locks

Jean-Jacques Pafrat, Master in 1725.
Died August 18, 1793.
Established on rue de Charonne in Paris, Pafrat was a cabinetmaker active at the end of the reign of Louis XVI. His work consists of various pieces of mahogany furniture, characterized by sober, rigorous lines. These pieces, such as chests of drawers, secretaries or dessert consoles, are often adorned with moldings, straight or twisted flutes, and sometimes fine bronze baguettes. Some of his furniture, with tapering columns or ebony frames, evokes influences such as Adam Weisweiler.
His career was interrupted by the French Revolution. Taking part in the storming of the Bastille and involved in revolutionary conflicts, he succumbed to his wounds in a Lille hospital. Despite his short career, Pafrat left a body of furniture representative of the refinement of the Louis XVI style.
Jean Nicolay points out in his book L'art et la manière des Maîtres ébénistes français du XVIIIe siècle that the Master unfortunately left too few stamped works.