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.

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Antique Bureau De Dame

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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.