Small oval writing table (one of a pair) ca. 1775 Roger Vandercruse, called Lacroix French The maker of this table and its pair, Roger Vandercruse, who was known by the French version of his name as Lacroix, had a successful career in Paris where he was part of a network of outstanding craftsmen. Three of his sisters married cabinetmakers, including Françoise Marguerite who was the wife of Jean François Oeben and after Oebens death married Jean Henri Riesener. Vandercruse stamped his work with his initials: R.V.L.C. Although he made larger pieces such as commodes and secretaries, one of his specialties was the production of meubles volants, portable items of furniture such as small tables for different usages. Letter writing was a much-practiced and fashionable activity amongst the literate in eighteenth-century Europe. Indeed, the English diarist Horace Walpole reported to a friend that “there have been known here [in Paris persons who wrote to one another four times a day”. In orde