A painted pedestal desk, c.1940-50, decorated and painted by the Marquis d'Oisy, with a leather top, raised on pedestals with drawers, the sides and drawer fronts painted with flowers and urns, 129cm wide 76cm deep 74cm high Amand Edouard Ambroise Marie Lowis Etienne Philippe d'Saint Andre Tournay, Marquis d'Oisy, was the nom de plume of Ambrose Thomas (1880-1959) who lived in Pledgdon Green between Elsenham and Broxted, Essex. Little is known of his early life, but he was a Benedictine monk and moved to North Essex in around 1917. He designed church furnishings, most notably in Thaxted church, painted furniture and was involved with staging and designing pageants in Essex and the Midlands. He was a man who reinvented himself numerous times, was declared bankrupt in the early 1930s and was seen as 'one of those artistic hangers-on to whoever lived in the great house'. Sold together with Julian Litten's 'The Mystery of Marquis d'Oisy', 2015.