Secrétaire à culbute

A very special piece of furniture!

Some call it a transformation secretary, others simply a magic table.
Officially, this piece of furniture is called "Secrétaire à culbute" and it can be transformed from a side table into a ladies' secretary in just a few steps.

When I saw this strange little secretary for the first time, I was immediately fascinated. I had never seen anything like it before! It is absolutely crazy to develop a mechanism to sink a secretary part into a side table and then actually integrate it into a piece of furniture.
Of course, I bought the little magic table, which was still completely unrestored at the time.

Then I started doing research. Where was the piece built? When was it built? And what do you call something like that anyway?

A similar object is in the Bavarian National Museum and so I found out the name: Secrétaire à culbute! I was able to continue working with this name and found a technical drawing in one of my books on French furniture ( A.J. Roubo - Description des Arts et Métiers - Le Menuisier en Meubles (plate 265)).

Of course I was able to sell this rare piece of furniture very quickly - and so I only had a short time with my Secrétaire à culbute but since then I have kept my eyes open to find another one ;-)

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