A stunning English walnut 'bonheur du jour' ladies writing desk in the Victorian style.

This beautiful piece features classical marquetry decoration and attractive ormolu mounts.

A large drawer and ample additional storage compartments above the writing surface make this a practical ly as well as aesthetically pleasing piece of furniture.

The quality and attention to detail throughout is second to none.


Height 104 cm

Width 65 cm

Depth 46 cm


A bonheur du jour (French, "daytime delight") is a type of lady's writing desk.  It was introduced in Paris by one of the interior decorators and purveyors of fashionable novelties called marchands-merciers about 1760, and speedily became intensely fashionable.

The bonheur du jour is always very light and graceful, with a decorated back, since it did not stand against the wall (meuble meublant) but was moved about the room (meuble volant);  its special characteristic is a raised back, which may form a little cabinet or a nest of drawers, or open shelves, which might be closed with a tambour may simply be fitted with a mirror.

The top, often surrounded with a chased and gilded bronze gallery, serves for placing small ornaments. Beneath the writing surface there is usually a single drawer, often neatly fitted for toiletries or writing supplies.  Early examples were raised on slender cabriole legs; under the influence of neoclassicism, examples made after about 1775 had straight, tapering legs.

The marchand-mercier Simon-Philippe Poirier had the idea of mounting bonheurs du jour with specially-made plaques of Sèvres porcelain that he commissioned and for which he had a monopoly;  the earliest Sèvres-mounted bonheur du jours are datable from the marks under their plaques to 1766-67.  The choicer examples of the time are inlaid with marquetry or panels of Oriental lacquer, banded with exotic woods, with gilt-bronze mounts.

By the mid-1770s the bonheur du jour was being made in London, where it was simply called a "lady's writing-desk."