Tradition has it that this belonged to Napoleon II - François Charles Joseph Bonaparte, known as the Eagle (1811-1832), son of Napoleon I and Maria Louisa Habsburg, nominal King of Rome. In spite of his father renouncing the title of Emperor on his behalf, he was removed from the throne by the states of the anti-Napoleonic coalition. He was brought up at the court of his grandfather, the Austrian Emperor Franz I, in Vienna and in 1818 was given the title of Duke of the Reichstadt. He was put forward by the Bonapartists as a candidate for the thrones of many European countries, including The Kingdom of Poland in 1831.
      This item of empire-style furniture was carved from nutwood by Benedict Moll in Vienna in 1809. The decorative elements, made of gold-plated bronze, depict typical empire motives: cadets, masks, moths, gryphons and gorgon heads.
      The desk’s simple form houses a multitude of drawers and boxes which are opened by the appropriate turning of keys and pressing of buttons.
      The desk was acquired after the First World War by the collector Bruno Konczakowski, at an auction in Austria. It underwent preservation work in 1983, at Krakow’s Conservation Workshop.