06/22/2017
From customer: The desk came into my family seven or eight generations ago in the mid 1800's from the widow of a well-known Scottish gardener named Thomas Blaikie. He had designed gardens for various members of the French aristocracy prior to the revolution and was closely associated with Charles Phillipe (Compte D'Artois brother of Louis XVI and future Charles X). The desk was part of a collection of items given to my great-great-grand mother who was from Dover England. The collection came to the US when my grandfather emigrated during WWII and was housed in my grandmother's home from about 1940 until I inherited it from her in 1995. The collection included the desk, several other pieces of pink satin upholstered furniture, a small bust of Marie Antoinette and Blaikie's original hand-written diary. The diary contains numerous entries about his interactions with and work for the French court including Marie Antoinette. Apparently he was somewhat of a confidante of Antoinette in the days prior to her ex*****on. The diary has been published at least twice and two of my ancestors are mentioned in the introduction as being in possession of the diary and a collection of his belongings including fine furniture (the writing desk is not mentioned specifically). Attached are links to Blaikie's wikipedia page, a link to the recent edition of his published diary, and an excerpt from the intro mentioning my ancestors in Dover. I have a phototcopy of the original leather-bound diary (my Aunt has the original along with the rest of the collection of items) as well as copies of correspondence between Blaikie and the French government and the British administration charged with resolving claims by British citizens against France in the aftermath of the revolution. Blaikie made financial claims against the estate of the Compte D'Artios for services rendered, against the French state for items stolen from his home by Revolutionary troops in1792, and for the loss of his house in France when it was subsequently burned. The letters we have span a 30 year period from the 1790's to the 1820's.