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, with a narrow shallow drawer divided into compartments for writing materials (now empty). The principal drawer, fitted with 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 bouquet of flowers.
This small and elegant writing table is difficult to identify in eighteenth-century accounts and inventories, as its inventory numbers have been partially erased. However, it can be definitely identified in 1826 at the Pavillon de Flore at the Tuileries Palace, for which it does bear the marks, where it was in the bedroom of the ‘Major of the King’s Bodyguard’.
If indeed it was made for either Queen Marie Antoinette or Madame Élisabeth, they were both held captive in the Tuileries during the Reign of Terror, with Madame Élisabeth inhabiting a suite of rooms in Pavillon de Flore.
It has been altered at some point, with floral gilt-bronze mounts added to its legs and its dustboard repurposed as the base of its drawer. It was acquired by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild at some point before 1897, when it is shown in the Small Library at Waddesdon Manor in a photograph in the Red Book.
Other exhibition labels
- This small and elegant writing table is difficult to identify in eighteenth-century accounts and inventories, as its inventory numbers have been partially erased. However, it can be definitely identified in 1826 at the Pavillon de Flore at the Tuileries Palace, for which it does bear the marks, where it was in the bedroom of the ‘Major of the King’s Bodyguard’.
- If indeed it was made for either Queen Marie Antoinette or Madame Élisabeth, they were both held captive in the Tuileries during the Reign of Terror, with Madame Élisabeth inhabiting a suite of rooms in Pavillon de Flore.
- It has been altered at some point, with floral gilt-bronze mounts added to its legs and its dustboard repurposed as the base of its drawer. It was acquired by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild at some point before 1897, when it is shown in the Small Library at Waddesdon Manor in a photograph in the Red Book.
Dimensions (mm) / weight (mg)
732 x 800 x 480
Marks
J.H.RIESENER
Maker's mark
beneath the left-hand rail
Labels
I table marqueterie / Château des Tuileries. / 1829.-No 3118. No- Mai 8- / Pav. de flore.
Label
partly handwritten, pasted to the underside of the bottom of the drawer
Provenance
- Possibly supplied to Madame Élisabeth of France (b. 1764, d. 1794) in 1784; acquired by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (b.1839, d.1898) before 1897; 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; Bernard Molitor - Bronzes; Luxembourg; Musee d'historie de la Ville de Luxembourg; 1995
- Alain Gruber; L'art decoratif en Europe - Classique et Baroque; Paris; Citadelles & Mazenod; 1992; image not used
- 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. 19