Secretary

“bonheur-du-jour” escritoire An escritoire is a small ladies’ desk popularised in the 18th century. The French name secrétaire was borrowed from the Latin secretum meaning secret. Escritoires, or secretary desks, were used to store and keep correspondence, documents, to hide personal mementos or objects of great value from unwanted curiosity. In France, a ladies’ writing desk, known as a bonheur-du-jour or “happiness of the day”, usually had a rectangular top with a set-back containing compartments with numerous compartments, drawers and shelves with doors. Below the top was a drawer and below that an open shelf connecting the slender legs. In the last quarter of the 18th century, the French ebonist and furniture designer Charles Topino gave the ladies’ writing desk a previously unseen oval design. Since then, the oval or similar shape of the desks was imitated in the 19th century. The presented bonheur-du-jour type secretary desk, modelled on classicist furniture, may serve as an example. Its semicircular top with a drawer concealing a writing desk is supported by high legs connected by a shelf. The table top is topped with a cabinet with a locked door and decorated with an oval painting of a landscape. Teresa Bagińska-Żurawska https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9243-3967