A rectangular cylinder-top desk, veneered in satinwood and purplewood, with elaborately chased gilt bronze mounts including a frieze of classical figures, embracing cupids and honeysuckle ornaments. The upper section has a three-quarter gilt bronze gallery and central frieze drawer. The roll top is inlaid with anthemions and with a central panel in gilt bronze depicting a sacrifice to the Roman goddess Vesta.

This desk was made by G-A. Jacob (1799-1870) whose stamp, incoporating his name and address, is punched on the underside. G-A. Jacob belonged to a dynasty of furniture makers founded by his grandfather, Georges Jacob. He first studied architecture and worked as a pupil of C. Percier, and it was only in 1825, when his father, F-H-G. Jacob-Desmalter, retired that he took over the family furniture-making business. This piece of furniture, therefore, represents one of the first pieces made in the family workshops after G-A. Jacob assumed control of the firm - its receipt at CArlton House was recorded by Jutsham on 8 April 1825.

It also serves to illustrate Jacob's debt to his former master, C. Percier. The bronze plaque on the cylinder-top, which represnts a sacrifice to Vesta, the Roman goddess of the hearth, is copied from part of an engraving of a chimney-piece designed by Percier and Fontaine and published in 1801, entitled, 'Recueil de Décorations Intérieures...' This plaque may have been cast in the workshops of the bronze manufacturer, L-F. Feuchère.

Adapted from Harris, de Bellaigue and Millar, Buckingham Palace, London 1968, pp.208-9.