BY HENRY DASSON, PARIS, DATED 1882

This fine table is a faithful copy of the celebrated model by Adam Weisweiler (1744-1820), delivered in 1784 by the famous Parisian marchand-mercier Daguerre to the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne. It was placed in Marie-Antoinette's cabinet intérieur at the Château de Saint-Cloud and subsequently gifted to her close friend Madame de Polignac. Following its sale after the revolution, the Weisweiler table was discovered in a marchand's shop on the Quai Voltaire in 1840 by the Prince de Beauvau (d. 1864) and purchased by the Empress Eugénie at auction the year after his death. Eugénie placed the table in her Salon Bleu at the Tuileries where she gave audiences, and was also responsible for reigniting a fashion for all things associated with the famed Queen of France during the second half of the 19th century. This model was reproduced in a number of variants by the century's most distinguished ébénistes who specialized in meubles de style, including Emmanuel-Alfred (dit Alfred II) Beurdeley and his contemporaries, François Linke and Henry Dasson.