BY MAISON KRIEGER, PARIS, CIRCA 1880

This exquisite cylinder bureau by Maison Krieger is based on a model in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (No. 1043-1882). Despite changing attribution through the years, from Riesener to Oeben, Roentgen and Saunier, the maker of the V&A bureau remains unknown. By repute, the bureau was in the collection of Marie-Antoinette, and although this has never been proven, the piece became a popular model when it entered the collection of the then South Kensington Museum as part of the celebrated Jones Collection in 1882. It is possible that this public introduction of the model encouraged contemporary furniture makers to take note, as at least two of the top Parisian makers copied the piece. A nearly identical model by Sormani was highlighted in the Art Journal Paris Exhibition supplement for 1900 (illustrated to the left), later sold Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 16 April 2007, lot 243, and illustrated in C. Mestdagh, L'Ameublement d'art français: 1850-1900, Paris, 2010, p. 190. Sormani made another copy of the Exhibition piece for the Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park, New York, now in the collection of Château-sur-Mer, Newport. A slightly wider example, attributed to Sormani or Dasson, sold Sotheby's, New York, 24 October 2012, lot 32 ($116,500).