Writing table and filing cabinet
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Flat-sided rectangular writing-table which supports a filing cabinet with a clock at its left end. The table rests on four square tapering legs with indented corners. It is fitted with two drawers secured by locks flanking a dummy drawer in the knee-hole section, above which a reading-stand is housed. Matching false drawer fronts are repeated on the back. A leaf extension to the table top can be drawn out from the right end. The filing cabinet, also with indented corners, consists of a single tier of three drawers secured by individual locks, surmounted by an upper section with slightly splayed sides and front which contains four leather-faced cartons in two tiers. The cabinet is surmounted by two twin-branch candelabra flanking a clock, which is crowned by a group composed of two winged putti playing with a dog on a cloud.
This desk, or an identical one, is described in a post-mortem inventory of Elizabeth Chudleigh, Duchess of Kingston-upon-Hull, (b. 1720, d. 1788) at the Château de Sainte-Assise, near Paris, in 1788. The château had been given as a gift in 1773 to the marquise de Montesson (b. 1738, d. 1806) on the occasion of her secret marriage to Louis-Philippe, duc d'Orléans (b. 1725, d. 1785). The clock is signed by Jacques Debon (d. 1788), clock-maker to the duc d’Orléans, giving credence to the possibility that the desk was made for him, and was acquired with the château.
It is a remarkably sophisticated piece of furniture, with an integral reading stand, a leaf extension, a filing cabinet and a clock that shows the phases of the sun and the mood, as well as the time. Its gilt-bronze mounts are attributed to Etienne Martincourt, who collaborated with Riesener on a number of important pieces of furniture.
Alice de Rothschild wrote in her Catalogue (1906) that her brother Baron Ferdinand acquired it from the politician and statesman Edmé-Armand-Gaston, duc d’Audiffret-Pasquier, but this claim has yet to be firmly substantiated. It appears that the desk must have been on the art market in the nineteenth century, and acquired by Baron Ferdinand before it was photographed in 1897 in the West Gallery at Waddesdon Manor.
Other exhibition labels
- This desk, or an identical one, is described in a post-mortem inventory of Elizabeth Chudleigh, Duchess of Kingston-upon-Hull, (b. 1720, d. 1788) at the Château de Sainte-Assise, near Paris, in 1788. The château had been given as a gift in 1773 to the marquise de Montesson (b. 1738, d. 1806) on the occasion of her secret marriage to Louis-Philippe, duc d'Orléans (b. 1725, d. 1785). The clock is signed by Jacques Debon (d. 1788), clock-maker to the duc d’Orléans, giving credence to the possibility that the desk was made for him, and was acquired with the château.
- It is a remarkably sophisticated piece of furniture, with an integral reading stand, a leaf extension, a filing cabinet and a clock that shows the phases of the sun and the mood, as well as the time. Its gilt-bronze mounts are attributed to Etienne Martincourt, who collaborated with Riesener on a number of important pieces of furniture.
- Alice de Rothschild wrote in her Catalogue (1906) that her brother Baron Ferdinand acquired it from the politician and statesman Edmé-Armand-Gaston, duc d’Audiffret-Pasquier, but this claim has yet to be firmly substantiated. It appears that the desk must have been on the art market in the nineteenth century, and acquired by Baron Ferdinand before it was photographed in 1897 in the West Gallery at Waddesdon Manor.
Dimensions (mm) / weight (mg)
Overall height 1708
table 787 x 1625 x 803
dial 140 (diam)
Marks
J. H. RIESENER
Maker's mark
beneath the right-hand rail
DE BON H.GER DE M.G.R / LE DUC D'ORLEANS
Maker's mark
on the dial
Richard 8bre 1779
Maker's mark
Provenance
- Possibly supplied to Louis-Philippe, duc d’Orléans (b. 1725, d.1785) c 1780; probably owned by Elizabeth Chudleigh, Duchess of Kingston-upon-Hull (b. 1720, d. 1788) before 1788; possibly owned by Louis-Joseph Maurice (b. 1730, d. 1820), his sale, 8 November 1820, lot 140; possibly owned by Georges Alphonse Bonifacio Monbro (b. 1807, d.1884); his sale, 27 June 1850, lot 190; probably owned by Edmé-Armand-Gaston, duc d’Audiffret-Pasquier b. 1823, d. 1905); acquired by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (b. 1839, d. 1898) by 1898; inherited by his sister Alice de Rothschild (b.1847, d.1922); inherited by her great-nephew James de Rothschild (b.1878, d.1957); bequeathed to Waddesdon (National Trust) in 1957.
Collection
- Waddesdon (National Trust)
- Bequest of James de Rothschild, 1957
Bibliography
- Geoffrey de Bellaigue, Anthony Blunt; Furniture Clocks and Gilt Bronzes: The James A de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor; 2 vols; Fribourg; Office du Livre; 1974; p. 435-439, no. 90; cat. 90
- Helen Jacobsen, Rufus Bird, Mia Jackson; Jean-Henri Riesener: Cabinetmaker to Louis XVI & Marie-Antoinette Furniture in the Wallace Collection, the Royal Collection & Waddesdon Manor; Philip Wilson Publishers; cat. 15