THIS IS A SECRETAIRE, meaning a desk with a bottom-hinged front section that falls forward to provide a writing surface. But it is a specially light and graceful kind of secretaire called a bonheur du jour [daytime delight]. Introduced in the 1760s to please the ladies, a bonheur du jour features a raised back with storage compartments.

Dr. G. Harry McLaughlin's grandmother Ethel used to own the secretaire. It was in her home at Lyston Hall near Long Melford, Suffolk. Considering the large amount of wear on the velour writing surface, it may have been bought in 1875 by Ethel's father William Pawley as a gift to his bride Angeline.

From the end of the 1920s Ethel lived in hotels in London and Rome. She therefore gave the secretaire to her daughter Daphne McLaughlin, who lent it to help furnish historic Milbourne House, Barnes, which her aunt Winifred McLaughlin acquired in 1957. Likewise, Harry's great-great-great-grandfather's grandfather clock was lent by his mother.





While on honeymoon in 1980, Harry and his Belgian-born bride Liliane visited Milbourne House with Daphne. When they gasped at the beauty of the bonheur du jour Daphne gave it to them as a wedding present.

Relieved at no longer having a valuable possession to safeguard, they have donated it to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art so that it now has a permanent home where many more people can enjoy it. The picture shows Liliane and Harry with Curator of Decorative Arts Thomas Michie and Assistant Curator Bobbye Tigerman.

The secretaire is in the style of Louis XV but the signature on the lock shows that it was made in the mid-nineteenth century by Alphonse Giroux. His father was François Simon Alphonse Giroux, Parisian cabinetmaker and official restorer for Notre Dame, who, in 1799, opened an artist supplies store in Rue du Coq St Honoré. With Alphonse he set up a workshop to produce technically sophisticated furniture and luxury toys.

The French kings Louis XVIII and Charles X were among their clientele. For the Count of Chambord, a pretender to the throne, they made a superb drawing table, now listed in the official Heritage of France. In 1838 Alphonse took control of the enterprise.

For the 1855 Universal Exposition in Paris Giroux capitulated to the fashionable Roccoco Revival by exhibiting a bonheur du jour with sculpted excrescences of plants and animals. The tasteless Empress Eugenie bought it for 5,500 francs and it is now, together with her portrait, in le château de Compiègne museum.

The choicer examples of a bonheur du jour, such as this one, are covered with parquetry, an overlay of wood veneers, cut and fitted to make a repeating pattern. The plain back is covered with straight-edged pieces of veneer, as in most parquetry. But elsewhere the rosewood shapes are curved like dumbbells. The cabinet maker made his task even more intricate by gently bowing outward the surfaces to which the parquetry is fixed. There is a single exception: the top is flat so that ornaments may be placed on it. To safeguard them the top is surrounded with a chased and gilded bronze gallery.

All hinges are finely engraved and all the major surfaces are embellished with the large ormolu [gilded bronze] mountings pictured alongside.



Nearly every edge is protected by a more or less elaborate gilded serpentine apron which flows into the four cabriole legs, each topped by a nubile caryatid.


When the secretaire is unlocked, four drawers can be seen on either side by opening the cover doors. Hand-painted 18th century figures in garden settings grace the inner side of each door, inset on the exterior of which is a Sevres panel of putti. A similar panel is inset under the keyhole on the lid.

The key is used to pull up on the folding slant lid which can then fall forward. The lid's inner side provides the front half of a writing surface lined with blue velour.

Below the full width drawer on the far side is a metal handle. Pulling on it lifts the rear half of the writing surface, thus opening a large recess which can be used to store stationery and writing materials.

In a recess at the centre a centurion stands bold as brass. He is flanked by two Corinthian columns. The plinth supporting them all is actually a concealed drawer.

When the drawer is opened one can press on a spring hidden in the top of its frame. This releases a catch, allowing the centurion and his surroundings to be pulled away completely. One now finds that he was guarding a box suitable for secreting large pieces of jewelry.

Removing the centurion's box gives access to another hidden spring. This one is in the roof of the frame that held the box. Press the spring and a drawer concealed behind the pediment can be pulled forward.

There are more secret drawers, but they are much harder for a jealous husband to find. After determined prying in the space left by the removal of the centurion's box, a pair of ebony drawers can be made to swing out from each side. They are very small, but adequate for concealing billets doux.

Alphonse Giroux was noted for his ingenuity. After the Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau invented a precursor of animated movies in 1830, Alphonse not only manufactured and sold the device, he also named it: the phenakistiscope. To see some fascinating phenakistiscope animations click here.

Perhaps the most famous of Giroux's accomplishments was the manufacture of the world's first commercial camera in 1839. Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre, having invented the first practical photographic process, went on to design the camera. To make it he chose his brother-in-law ? none other than Alphonse Giroux. The camera and accessories cost $50, half the profit going to Giroux. Within months all of the 250 cameras he had made were sold.

Only 12 original Giroux cameras remain in the world. The first one made, shown right, went to the University of Uppsala where it still is. The camera consists of two wooden boxes; moving the inner one focuses the picture.

The number UN is stamped on the camera's plaque which reads: "No apparatus is guaranteed if it does not carry Mr Daguerre?s signature and Mr Giroux?s seal. The DAGUERREOTYPE made under the supervision of its originator in Paris by Alph. Giroux and Company, Rue du Coq. St Honoré No. 7.? The text on the seal is: ?DAGUERREOTYPE 1839 Alph. Giroux.? If you could not afford a camera you purchased its description, published by Giroux, of course.

     

© 2008 G. Harry McLaughlin.
Reproduction or transmission, in whole or in part, for other than personal use is prohibited without advance permission from Dr. G. H. McLaughlin.