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Lot Essay
Jean-François Oeben, maître in 1759.
Jean-François Oeben (1721-1763) was born in Germany and must have moved to France before 1749, when he married the daughter of the ébéniste François Vandercruse, himself father of the celebrated Roger Vandercruse known as Lacroix (RVLC). Oeben was trained by the son of André-Charles Boulle from whom he rented workshop space at the Galeries du Louvre.
When the latter died, Jean-François Oeben was granted a Royal warrant on 15 December 1754, enabling him to move into the Manufacture des Gobelins, as well as receiving the title of Ebéniste du Roi. At that point, he employed his younger brother Simon as a journeyman. During the same year, his name appeared in the Journal du Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, having delivered a commode for the apartment of the Dauphin in Versailles. In 1756, he moved to the Arsenal when a Royal brevet granted him and his wife the life tenancy of a workshop. In 1760 he began work on the famed bureau du Roi, later completed by Jean-Henri Riesener who until then had been his principal assistant. In 1761, Oeben became a maître without requirement to pay the fees generally demanded. When he died in 1763, his widow took over his business and choose Riesener to run it, who she would eventually marry.
Oeben was both an ébéniste and a mécanicien. It is only because he enjoyed Royal protection that he was able to combine two activities that guild regulations prohibited any craftsmen from practicing at the same time. Therefore, he was able to specialize in luxurious pieces of furniture incorporating elaborate mechanisms such as tables à la Bourgogne, tables de toilette or à écrire fitted with sliding tops such as the present table.
Jean-François Oeben (1721-1763) was born in Germany and must have moved to France before 1749, when he married the daughter of the ébéniste François Vandercruse, himself father of the celebrated Roger Vandercruse known as Lacroix (RVLC). Oeben was trained by the son of André-Charles Boulle from whom he rented workshop space at the Galeries du Louvre.
When the latter died, Jean-François Oeben was granted a Royal warrant on 15 December 1754, enabling him to move into the Manufacture des Gobelins, as well as receiving the title of Ebéniste du Roi. At that point, he employed his younger brother Simon as a journeyman. During the same year, his name appeared in the Journal du Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, having delivered a commode for the apartment of the Dauphin in Versailles. In 1756, he moved to the Arsenal when a Royal brevet granted him and his wife the life tenancy of a workshop. In 1760 he began work on the famed bureau du Roi, later completed by Jean-Henri Riesener who until then had been his principal assistant. In 1761, Oeben became a maître without requirement to pay the fees generally demanded. When he died in 1763, his widow took over his business and choose Riesener to run it, who she would eventually marry.
Oeben was both an ébéniste and a mécanicien. It is only because he enjoyed Royal protection that he was able to combine two activities that guild regulations prohibited any craftsmen from practicing at the same time. Therefore, he was able to specialize in luxurious pieces of furniture incorporating elaborate mechanisms such as tables à la Bourgogne, tables de toilette or à écrire fitted with sliding tops such as the present table.