Dictionary

bureau plat en · NOUN

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French bureau plat.

Meanings

1. A flat writing desk.
   • Ten cautious steps and five feet later, April spied a Louis XVI gilt-metal bureau plat, a pair of George III mahogany armchairs, a Charles X Savonnerie carpet, and one unbelievable mid-eighteenth-century gold girandole. 2014, Michelle Gable, A Paris Apartment, New York, N.Y.: Thomas Dunne Books, →ISBN, page 10:
   • Small feminized versions of the bureau plat reinforce rather than call into question the masculinity of the form. The reduced size, rounded corners, and porcelain plaques mounted on the bureau plat shown in figure 6.28 make it for a man’s office furniture while bringing it into stylistic conformity with the other small porcelain-mounted furniture that decorated the bedroom of its owner: the Russian grand duchess Maria Feodorovna. 2009, Dena Goodman, Becoming a Woman in the Age of Letters, Ithaca, N.Y.; London: Cornell University Press, →ISBN, page 230:
   • A Victorian kingwood and rosewood bureau plat, in Louis XV style, with ormolu mounts, the top with a suede writing surface, above three frieze drawers with false fronts to the reverse, on cabriole legs. 2022, Judith Miller, Miller’s Antiques Handbook & Price Guide 2022–2023, London: Miller’s, Mitchell Beazley, →ISBN, page 266:
   • The 19th century tulipwood bureau-plat table is in a similar style of renowned cabinetmaker Jacques-Laurent Cosson. 2022 October 19, Adam Dutton, “Hoard of 17th century treasure found in castle once owned by James Bond publisher”, in Mirror, archived from the original on 07 Nov 2021:

Forms