Drop-front desk (secrétaire à abattant or secrétaire en cabinet). Culture: French, Paris and Sèvres. Decorator: Oval front plaques decorated by Nicolas Bulidon (French, active 1763-92); Oval side plaques decorated by Marie-Claude Sophie Xhrouuet (active 1775-88); Six plaques decorated by Guillaume Noël (French, active 1755-1807); Two plaques decorated by Jacques-François Micaud (French, active 1757-1810). Dimensions: Overall: 47 × 31 3/4 × 16 3/8 in. (119.4 × 80.6 × 41.6 cm). Factory: Porcelain plaques by Sèvres Manufactory (French, 1740-present). Maker: Martin Carlin (French, near Freiburg im Breisgau ca. 1730-1785 Paris). Date: ca. 1773.Madame du Barry appears to have had an insatiable taste for furniture embellished with porcelain plaques. Between 1768 and 1774 she acquired ten such pieces from Simon-Philippe Poirier. On December 30, 1773, the dealer sold his frequent client a secretary with French porcelain on a green ground lavishly decorated with giltbronze mounts, a description