Chest of drawers
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Rectangular break-fronted chest of drawers decorated with incurved splayed ends and canted forecorners, which is supported on four short out-turned feet. It contains two principal drawers below a frieze divided into three shallow drawers, all secured by individual locks. A trophy emblematic of Force and Abundance is inlaid in the trapeze-shaped panel in the centre of the front which is flanked by laurel branches of gilt bronze. A cipher, chased on the key-plate of the centre drawer of the frieze, is formed by the letters P S E J.
It is not definitely known for whom this chest of drawers was made, but the cipher on the lock plate - P S E J - may indicate a commission from Madame Sophie, daughter of Louis XV, whose full name was Sophie Philippine Élisabeth Justine. She and her sisters, known collectively as Mesdames de France, retained apartments at Versailles when Louis XVI came to the throne in 1774.
The marquetry trophy representing Strength and Abundance was used on several pieces of furniture for the royal family and the marquetry would have been vividly coloured - a similar trophy is described as having a red and yellow ribbon in Riesener’s memoranda.
It was acquired by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild’s agent, Wertheimer, from the sale of the collector James Whatman in 1882 for £1,575. When Alice de Rothschild wrote her catalogue of the works of art in Waddesdon Manor in 1906, she noted that the chest of drawers was ‘probably by Riesener’.
Other exhibition labels
- It is not definitely known for whom this chest of drawers was made, but the cipher on the lock plate - P S E J - may indicate a commission from Madame Sophie, daughter of Louis XV, whose full name was Sophie Philippine Élisabeth Justine. She and her sisters, known collectively as Mesdames de France, retained apartments at Versailles when Louis XVI came to the throne in 1774.
- The marquetry trophy representing Strength and Abundance was used on several pieces of furniture for the royal family and the marquetry would have been vividly coloured - a similar trophy is described as having a red and yellow ribbon in Riesener’s memoranda.
- It was acquired by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild’s agent, Wertheimer, from the sale of the collector James Whatman in 1882 for £1,575. When Alice de Rothschild wrote her catalogue of the works of art in Waddesdon Manor in 1906, she noted that the chest of drawers was ‘probably by Riesener’.
Dimensions (mm) / weight (mg)
949 x 1669 x 597
Marks
J.H.RIESENER
Maker's mark
four times on top of carcase below marble top, once on each corner
Provenance
- Acquired by James Whatman (b.1813, d. 1887) before 1882, his sale, 28 April 1882, lot 183, at which bought by ‘Wertheimer’ for £1,575; acquired by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (b. 1839, d. 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
- ♦; Christian Baulez, fall-front desk, La Revue du Louvre et des musées de France, 3, June 1998, 13-14
- Pierre Ramond; Chefs-d'Oeuvre des Marqueteurs; vol 3; Paris; Éditions Gallimard; 1999; p. 63
- Gervase Jackson-Stops, Robin Simon; The National Trust, 1895-1995: 100 great treasures; London; The National Trust, Apollo Magazine Ltd; 1995
- Gazette des Beaux-Arts; Paris; Gazette des Beaux-Arts; 1959
- Kunst & Antiquitäten; VI/80, Nov./Dez.
- 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; vol. I, pp. 251-255; cat. 55
- Versailles: deux siècles d'histoire de l'art. Études et chroniques de Christian Baulez; Versailles; Société des Amis de Versailles; 2007; p. 146; 101/631/01
- 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. 5