Antique Bureau De Dame between £0 and £0
A small writing desk made for a lady's use: a fall-front bureau on slender legs, usually with a raised tier of little drawers above the writing surface.
What Is A Bureau De Dame?
The form began in mid-18th-century France, where the bonheur du jour and the bureau de dame were made as light furniture for a boudoir or drawing room rather than a study. It was revived and made in quantity through the 19th century in France and Britain, and that revival is what comes to market.
What you'll meet on Sellingantiques is a French inlaid rosewood bureau de dame of the second half of the 19th century. The word "french" appears in 45 of 82 titles, more than any timber. Rosewood leads the woods, then walnut, then kingwood. Marquetry and parquetry are common, and the upper part of the range carries ormolu or gilt metal mounts.
Dating is broad more often than exact. The dated field runs 1850 to 1920, with 37 of 82 listings carrying a clean year, while 26 say only "19th Century" and 14 only "Victorian". Where decades are given they gather in the 1870s, 1880s and 1860s. One piece dated c.1800 stands alone before the run.
Around ten come to market a year across 46 different dealers, so no one dealer owns the category. Titles use bureau de dame, ladies writing desk, ladies bureau and bonheur du jour more or less interchangeably; four listings drop the French term for bonheur du jour, and one spells it "bureau du dame". Walnut and burr-walnut versions, some called Victorian or English, make up roughly a fifth and are rising in current stock.
Where The Range Splits
Metal decides a lot of it. Ormolu and gilt-metal mounts appear only in the higher-priced titles, applied to edges, corners and mouldings. Porcelain plaques go further still: two pieces in the whole archive carry them, both combined with kingwood, both near the top. The Louis XV style and Napoleon III pieces cluster in that same upper group.
Then the veneer. Burr walnut, satinwood, amboyna, tulipwood and gonçalo alves sit at the upper end, while plain rosewood and mahogany hold the lower half. Amount of inlay works the same way: marquetry described as extensive or exhibition quality rides high, and "inlaid rosewood" on its own recurs throughout the bottom of the range.
Dealer language tracks the split closely enough to read. "Fine quality", "exhibition quality", "very fine" and "superior" occur only in the top third of titles; "decorative", "pretty" and "neat sized" belong to the lower. The top of the range is held by a single French marquetry bureau circa 1880, an order of magnitude above the next one.
Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for bureau de dame between £0 and £0, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
19th Century is the period label used most on Sellingantiques for these desks, with Victorian next and the 1870s third.
The Antique Bureau De Dame between £0 and £0 Glossary
- Bureau de dame
- A small writing bureau made for a lady's use. The spelling "bureau du dame" also turns up in titles.
- Fall front
- The hinged writing flap that drops down to form the writing surface, and the usual arrangement in this category.
- Superstructure
- The raised tier of small drawers, shelves or pigeonholes standing above the writing surface.
- Marquetry
- Decorative veneer picture-work in contrasting woods, named in 16 titles. Parquetry is the geometric version, in two.
- Kingwood
- A dense purple-brown Brazilian veneer wood, in 9 titles and often paired with rosewood.
- Vernis Martin
- A painted and varnished finish in the French 18th-century manner, used by one listing in the archive.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a bonheur du jour the same thing?
In these listings, near enough. Four titles call the form a bonheur du jour rather than a bureau de dame, and the piece described is the same kind of small lady's writing desk with a raised back structure.
Ladies writing desk and ladies bureau are used the same way. National origin and timber do more work in a title than the name of the form.
What wood are they usually made from?
Rosewood leads, appearing in 26 of the 82 titles, with "french rosewood" as a set phrase. Walnut follows, then kingwood.
Everything else is thin on the ground. Satinwood, tulipwood, amboyna, fruitwood, mahogany and gonçalo alves each show up only once or twice across the archive.
How old are most of them?
The dated field runs from 1850 to 1920, with a single outlier dated c.1800. Period terms cluster firmly on the 19th century.
Decade-level dating is the exception. Half the archive is dated only to a century or a reign, and where decades are given they concentrate on the 1870s, 1880s and 1860s.
Are they French or English?
French dominates. The word appears in 45 of 82 titles, making national origin the most-used descriptor in the category, ahead of any timber.
The English side is smaller and mostly walnut or burr walnut, often labelled Victorian. One title says "English C. 1870" and one says "French Provincial".
What are ormolu mounts on these desks?
Gilded metal mounts applied to edges, corners and mouldings. On this form they go with the Louis XV style and Napoleon III pieces.
They sit in the upper part of the range. "Ormolu mounted" and "gilt metal mounts" appear only in higher-priced titles.
Do any have porcelain plaques?
Two in the whole archive. Both combine porcelain plaques with kingwood, and both sit near the top of the range.
Other one-off finishes turn up the same way: a black lacquered example, a vernis Martin painted one, and a cylinder front instead of a fall front.