All works › National Gallery of Art

Roll-top Desk (Bureau à cylindre)

Jean-Henri Riesener, c. 1775/1785

1.28 m × 1.21 m

Almost as tall as you are. It comes to about the height of the person standing beside it.

Against things you know the size of

Height: 1.21 m
Width: 1.28 m
Medium: veneered on oak principally with tulipwood and purplewood, with ebony (or wood stained to resemble ebony) and boxwood for stringing; gilded bronze mounts
Kind: Decorative Art
Where the measurement comes from: Measured by the museum. The dimension is the one recorded by the institution that holds the work.
Credit: Widener Collection

Five questions, answered from its own record. What is AGAI?

How big is it?: 1.28 m × 1.21 m. Almost as tall as you are. Measured by the museum.
When was it made, and when is it everyone’s?: Made c. 1775/1785. It is in the public domain, and National Gallery of Art publishes it for open use.
Whose is it?: Everyone’s to see. It is held by National Gallery of Art: Widener Collection.
How was it made?: Veneered on oak principally with tulipwood and purplewood, with ebony (or wood stained to resemble ebony) and boxwood for stringing; gilded bronze mounts.
Who speaks for it?: Its record at National Gallery of Art. Measured by the museum. This gallery adds nothing it cannot cite.

This work is in the reference only. The gallery hangs a selection of the collection at real size.

One email. The smallest thing in the collection, the largest, and two that hang well together.

Scored on colour, shape, era and scale, the same way the gallery hangs them.