Elegantly appointed writing desks with ornamental veneers became essential furniture for the stylish American woman's boudoir or drawing room during the early nineteenth century. In addition to supplying a writing surface, these desks provided secure storage space for fragile possessions, jewelry, and other keepsakes. Contemporary periodicals prescribed the forms and patterns of the fashionable writing desks, or bonheurs-du-jour (literally, "happiness of the day"), and their style and decorative flourishes show the marked influence of French prototypes. This desk descended in the family of Louis Clapier, a successful Philadelphia merchant, who was born in Marseilles, France, and who profited from the city's trade with Paris. The interior of the desk is closely related to two desks that are labeled by William Sinclair, a cabinetmaker who worked in the Flourtown area. It was probably among the furnishings Clapier acquired upon his marriage to Maria Heyle in 1801 for their elegant town house at Sixth and Lombard streets. Jack L. Lindsey, from Philadelphia Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections (1995), p. 270.