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The '''''Bureau du Roi''''' ('King's desk') is the name given to the richly ornamented royal [[Cylinder desk]] whose construction was started under [[Louis XV of France|Louis XV]] and finished under [[Louis XVI of France|Louis XVI]] of [[France]]. It is the most lavishly decorated [[desk]] ever made, surpassing even the huge decorative "kunstschrank" [[secretary desk]]s of [[Germany]].
The ''Bureau du Roi'' was probably started in [[1760]], when the commission was formally announced. Its first designer was [[Jean Francis Oeben|Jean-François Oeben]], the master cabinet maker of the royal arsenal. The first step in its construction was the fabrication of an extremely detailed miniature model in wax . The full scale desk was finished in [[1769]] by his successor, [[Jean Henri Riesener]], who had married Oeben's widow. Made for the new ''Cabinet du Roi'' at the [[Palace of Versailles]], it now resides in the [[Louvre]] Museum in [[Paris]].
The desk is covered with intricate [[marquetry]] of a wide variety of fine woods. In an oval reserve at the center of its 'public' side, away from the king himself, is the marquetry head of Silence, with forefinger to lips, a reminder of the discretion required in the king's business. Gilt-bronze moldings of plaques, statuettes, miniature busts and vases, even integral scrolling gilt-bronze candle stands, further adorn the surfaces of the desk. The original design was to have a miniature bust of [[Louis XV of France|Louis XV]] on top, but it was replaced by [[Minerva]] after his death in 1770.
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