Writing table
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Flat-sided rectangular table supported on four straight tapering legs, square in section with indented corners. The table is fitted with a writing slide which draws out from the front and, to its right, a narrow shallow drawer which extends the full depth of the table and is divided in the front into three compartments for writing materials. They still contain a pounce pot and sponge container of silvered metal; the original ink-well is missing. The principal drawer, secured by a lock, pulls out from the left end. Overlaying the centre of the front and back is a rectangular panel with a shaped lower edge. The table top is veneered with fret marquetry in simulated relief interrupted in the centre by an oval reserve veneered with a trophy emblematic of Poetry and Literature.
This writing table was delivered for the use of Louis XVI in his private study to the Petit Trianon, in the grounds of Versailles, in August 1777. It is recorded in the Journal du Garde Meuble and Riesener’s own memorandum also survives, in which it is described as a ‘a beautiful marquetry writing table’. It cost 3,500 livres and was delivered along with a fall-front desk, now also at Waddesdon (WM 2476), a larger writing-table, now owned by the Getty but on loan to the Petit Trianon and a chest of drawers in the collections at Versailles.
The trophy representing Poetry and Literature is a composition often used by Riesener on a variety of furniture, including a roll-top desk in the Royal Collection (RCIN 2431) and a desk made for the comtesse de Provence, now in the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon (inv. 2082).
It is not certainly known where Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild acquired this table, but Miss Alice records in her 1906 Catalogue that he ‘acquired this from an octogenarian French Marquis who resided in the neighbourhood of Orleans. His mother was one of the Ladies-in-Waiting to Marie-Antoinette, who presented her with this table’. This kind of romantic provenance appealed to nineteenth-century collectors, and it is unlikely that Ferdinand knew that he had in fact separately acquired pieces that were delivered to King Louis XVI together. However, his preference for pieces bearing the marks of the Queen’s Garde Meuble guaranteed their quality and made this type of happy coincidence likely.
Other exhibition labels
- This writing table was delivered for the use of Louis XVI in his private study to the Petit Trianon, in the grounds of Versailles, in August 1777. It is recorded in the Journal du Garde Meuble and Riesener’s own memorandum also survives, in which it is described as a ‘a beautiful marquetry writing table’. It cost 3,500 livres and was delivered along with a fall-front desk, now also at Waddesdon (WM 2476), a larger writing-table, now owned by the Getty but on loan to the Petit Trianon and a chest of drawers in the collections at Versailles.
- The trophy representing Poetry and Literature is a composition often used by Riesener on a variety of furniture, including a roll-top desk in the Royal Collection (RCIN 2431) and a desk made for the comtesse de Provence, now in the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon (inv. 2082).
- It is not certainly known where Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild acquired this table, but Miss Alice records in her 1906 Catalogue that he ‘acquired this from an octogenarian French Marquis who resided in the neighbourhood of Orleans. His mother was one of the Ladies-in-Waiting to Marie-Antoinette, who presented her with this table’. This kind of romantic provenance appealed to nineteenth-century collectors, and it is unlikely that Ferdinand knew that he had in fact separately acquired pieces that were delivered to King Louis XVI together. However, his preference for pieces bearing the marks of the Queen’s Garde Meuble guaranteed their quality and made this type of happy coincidence likely.
Dimensions (mm) / weight (mg)
757 x 790 x 470
Marks
MA crowned and encircled with GARDE MEUBLE DE LA REINE
Owner's mark
on underside of the drawer
Labels
"Baron's Room Left of Left Window"
Label
Provenance
- Ordered by Queen Marie-Antoinette of France (b. 1755, d. 1793) for the use of King Louis XVI of France (b. 1754, d. 1793) at the Petit Trianon, Versailles; acquired by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (b.1839, d.1898) before 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
- Stéphane Castelluccio; L'objet d'Art; Quetigny; Éditions Faton; 1993
- Journal du Garde Meuble; 01 3319, folio 221; 01 3626
- Pierre Verlet; Möbel von J.H. Riesener; 1955?; Fig. 10; wrongly illustr. as Fig. 9
- The Burlington Magazine; The Burlington Magazine Publications Limited; July/August 1959, Fig. 21
- Gazette des Beaux-Arts; Paris; Gazette des Beaux-Arts; 1959, 2ème Trim., p. 28
- Pierre Verlet; French Royal Furniture; London; Barrie and Rockliff; 1963; No. 15, pp. 130-132, illustr.
- Pierre Verlet; Le Mobilier Royal Francais; III; Paris; Picard; 1994; p. 155; 101/362/03
- 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. 10