The "secrétaire", a French low-built writing cabinet developed from the writing cabinets of the Renaissance, spread in Hungary in the early 19th century. In both the Empire period and the Biedermeier period the simple, box-shaped version was common. A few urn-shaped "secretaries", too, have survived from this time. Of these the Museum's example, which was probably made in Sebestyén Vogel's "factory", is especially decorative in shape: as well as carved and gilded details, it also features rich embellishment in Indian ink.

Its two-footed plinth mounted on a rectangular base is embellished with grotesque winged heads. On the lower part, on the door between the drawers on either side, we see The Abduction of Ganymede; on the fold-down writing surface of the middle part, which is supported on either side by a griffin figure, we see an ornamented fountain from Antiquity. Behind the writing surface there is an inner part with a mirror and drawers. On top a broad drawer completes the main body of the "secrétaire"; at the very top, between two river-nymph figures, there is a gable with a single door.

The piece once stood in the palace of the Zeyk barons in Kolozsvár (today: Cluj-Napoca, Romania).

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