Writing table
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Flat-sided rectangular table with projecting corners, which is supported on four straight tapering legs, square in section with indented corners. The table is fitted with a single drawer secured by a lock (now missing) which draws out out from the left end; it is divided in the front into three compartments for writing materials (now empty). On each of the four sides of the table is a narrow rectangular panel which projects slightly and is overlaid in the centre by a larger rectangular panel with a shaped lower edge. The table top is veneered with a bouquet of flowers within a broad arabesque border.
The great French furniture historian Pierre Verlet identified this table (using its Garde Meuble inventory numbers) as having been delivered to Madame Élisabeth (youngest sister of Louis XVI) at Versailles but questioned whether the marquetry top matched the one described in the 1778 entry in the Journal du Garde Meuble. Geoffrey de Bellaigue subsequently discovered that repairs had been carried out to the table in 1787, and its top had been replaced by the furniture-maker Pierre-Roger Lacroix. Perhaps the fact it was in use in a bathroom meant that it quickly became damaged.
The inscriptions on the underside of the drawer probably date from the nineteenth century but it is not known who wrote them. Nor is it known from where Miss Alice de Rothschild acquired this table, but it was inventoried in her first-floor sitting room at Waddesdon in 1922, after her death.
Other exhibition labels
- The great French furniture historian Pierre Verlet identified this table (using its Garde Meuble inventory numbers) as having been delivered to Madame Élisabeth (youngest sister of Louis XVI) at Versailles but questioned whether the marquetry top matched the one described in the 1778 entry in the Journal du Garde Meuble. Geoffrey de Bellaigue subsequently discovered that repairs had been carried out to the table in 1787, and its top had been replaced by the furniture-maker Pierre-Roger Lacroix. Perhaps the fact it was in use in a bathroom meant that it quickly became damaged.
- The inscriptions on the underside of the drawer probably date from the nineteenth century but it is not known who wrote them. Nor is it known from where Miss Alice de Rothschild acquired this table, but it was inventoried in her first-floor sitting room at Waddesdon in 1922, after her death.
Dimensions (mm) / weight (mg)
717 x 834 x 510
Inscriptions
67 / œuvre De Reisener, / pour La cour / 1784
Inscription
in ink inside the drawer
Reisener / pour La cour 1774
Inscription
in ink on underside of the drawer's bottom panel
Provenance
- Supplied to Madame Élisabeth of France (b. 1764, d. 1794) in 1778; acquired by 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
- Pierre Verlet; Le Mobilier Royal Francais; III; Paris; Picard; 1994; pp. 156-157
- Journal du Garde Meuble; 01 3320, folio 9 verso
- Pierre Verlet; Möbel von J.H. Riesener; 1955?; Fig. 9; wrongly illus. as Fig. 10
- The Burlington Magazine; The Burlington Magazine Publications Limited; July/Aug. 1959, Fig. 20
- 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. 16, p. 133, illustr.
- 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. 12