RARE WRITING TABLE KNOWN AS "À LA POMPADOUR entirely decorated with with geometric marquetry of cubes and on the top a landscape with figures and architecture in a reserve and on the front with mother-of-pearl inlays. The top is sliding, revealing a flap covered in green leather in a drawer revealing a reserve. A small discreet drawer swivels to the side and holds an inkwell and hourglass. a silver-plated metal inkwell and hourglass. metal. Ornamentation of chased and gilded bronzes. Stamped (twice) by Léonard Boudin (received master in 1761) and Jurande. France, second half of the 18th century. Height: 72.6 cm - Width: 61 cm Depth : 38 cm (Accidents, restorations, elements replaced, small missing parts) PROVENANCE Michel Baechler Collection The 18th century saw the development of furniture furniture developed which, as well as being in a new style also adapted to the new standards of comfort of comfort in the rich interiors of the Kingdom of France. The architect Jacques François Blondel described these social changes by describing three types of flat, each of which required a specific type of furniture to suit their to suit their purpose: flats apartments, reception flats and private private flats. It was within the latter that the following were developed luxurious furniture was developed, including the writing tables attributed to the Marquise de Pompadour is credited with instigating the Marquise de Pompadour is credited with instigating this type of furniture. Modest in size, these flying pieces of furniture found their place in the intimacy of bedrooms and bedrooms and living rooms, and discovered multiple while at the same time adorning itself with an opulent to justify the fortune of its patron. Our table, which we can date to the 1770 is part of the Transition period between the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI and the same structure. It has a heterogeneous decoration and coloured with different essences combining picturesque scenes with straight lines and cubic marquetry with their cartouches and scrolls forming rocaille. Its forms demonstrate the maintenance the decade's attachment to the forms forms inherited from the Rococo period, while also revealing the evolution of the arts towards a "Greek style" taste with more severe lines. The inlaid decor favoured by the contemporaries of their creators can easily be seen in different interpretations on writing writing tables bearing different which seems to demonstrate that their that their creators shared their knowledge different workshops. Our piece of furniture bears the stamp of Léonard Boudin. A pupil of Pierre Migeon acquired a reputation among his peers reputation among his peers, which enabled him cabinetmaker to open his own shop and to employ and to employ several of his colleagues in his in his business, while continuing to put his signature his signature on the furniture resulting from this collaboration. In this way, furniture bearing his stamp may reveal the work of different cabinet-makers such as the architectural designs that can can also be attributed to André Louis Gilbert. Boudin was both a renowned cabinetmaker and a skilled dealer, Boudin's output was prolific, and there are even writing tables bearing his stamp can be found in can be found in renowned museums abroad as well as in France, notably the Metropolitan Museum in New York, where a a writing table of the same model as ours (inv. no. 69.9.4). Another example with a much more similar decoration was sold by Christie's London on 12 November 2020 (lot 24).