These two pieces of furniture were made in the early to mid-1780s for Queen Marie Antoinette by the German cabinetmaker Jean-Henri Riesener, who was appointed cabinetmaker to the king in 1774. They were intended for the Château de Saint-Cloud, one of the queen’s private residences. It was customary in the eighteenth century to have a chest of drawers matched with a tall writing desk such as this. Called a secretaire, it has drawers and a hinged surface that can be opened when the piece of furniture is used, or closed otherwise, as you see it now.
Made of oak veneered with various precious woods, including ash, bloodwood and amaranth, decorated with gilt bronze and topped with Breche d'Alep and white marble slabs, these pieces of furniture were conceived to be comparable in quality with the paintings and porcelain objects that would have been displayed around them. The wood marquetry, before discoloring, would have been vividly multicolored.
Marie Antoinette was particularly attached to these two pieces. She brought them with her from Saint-Cloud to the Tuileries palace, when she moved at the beginning of the French Revolution. In order to fit them into her new apartments, they were altered by Riesener around 1790. He must have been pleased with his alterations, as he took the unusual step of signing and dating the new marquetry panels.
Secretaire
Jean-Henri Riesener, one of the eighteenth century’s finest French cabinetmakers, was appointed ébeniste du roi (cabinetmaker to the king) in 1774, the year Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette ascended to the throne. During the next ten years, Riesener made numerous pieces of furniture for the royal family, including the queen, who seems to have particularly appreciated the cabinetmaker’s imaginative designs and beautifully crafted furniture. Riesener lost his title in 1784 due to administrative changes in the Garde-Meuble Royal, the organization responsible for furnishing the royal residences, but continued to work for Marie-Antoinette. In the early 1780s, he delivered this secretaire and matching commode (1915.5.76) for one of the many residences she was refurnishing, possibly the Château de Saint-Cloud, west of Paris. Several years later, Riesener reworked these two pieces for her new apartment at the Tuileries, where the royal family was forced to reside after the revolution began in 1789. This required reducing their scale to better suit the humbled queen’s new abode. Riesener’s creative solution was to shorten each piece, change the feet, apply simpler mounts, and add a new marquetry panel on the center of each piece. He was no doubt pleased with the elegant results as he took the unusual step of signing and dating the new marquetry panels.
Source: Vignon, Charlotte. The Frick Collection Decorative Arts Handbook. New York: The Frick Collection/Scala, 2015.
Marie-Antoinette. William Beckford (?). Tenth through twelfth Dukes of Hamilton. Hamilton Palace sale, Christie’s, London, June 17–July 20, 1882, the commode (Lot 302) sold to the Paris dealer H. Stettiner, from whom it passed to the Marquês da Foz, Lisbon, and the secrétaire (Lot 301) sold to the London dealer William Boore, from whom it passed to Guthrie of London. Duveen. Both pieces acquired by J. Pierpont Morgan, London and New York, in 1899. Duveen. Frick, 1915.
Source: Furniture in The Frick Collection: French 18th- & 19th-Century Furniture (Pt. 2) & Gilt Bronzes. Volume VI. New York: The Frick Collection, 1992.
