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Lot Essay
Of superb quality, this magnificent dressing-table is a direct 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, at a cost of 3260 livres. It was placed in Marie-Antoinette's cabinet intérieur at her Château de Saint-Cloud. She subsequently gave it to her close friend Madame de Polignac.
Having been sold 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). Purchased by the Empress Eugénie at auction the year after his death, she placed it in her salon bleu at the Tuileries where she gave her audiences. As her purchase demonstrates, Eugénie was an avid collector of Louis XVI items, particularly if they had been owned by Queen Marie-Antoinette. The table is now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris.
Influencing fashion as she did, Marie-Antoinette's model of table was again à la mode during the last quarter of the 19th century, and a number of Parisian cabinet-makers who specialised in meubles de style produced copies and simplified versions of it. One example was exhibited by the Maison Fourdinois at the Exposition des arts du bois organised in 1882 by the Union centrale des Arts Décoratifs.
Born in 1847, Alfred Beurdeley (d. 1919), took over his father's business in 1875. The shop was located at the Pavillon de Hanovre, while his workshops were at 20 & 24 rue Dautancourt, Paris. He specialised in producing the most luxurious articles to the highest quality and was pre-eminent among the Parisian ébénistes, especially for the refinement of his ormolu, which was the best in Paris. Beurdeley's work is scarce and only occasionally appears for sale. Using only the most magnificent models, taking as his reference articles from the Garde-Meuble National, which incorporated the remaining collections from the former Royal Palaces. He exhibited at the major International Exhibitions, such as Paris in 1878 and Amsterdam in 1883, and was awarded the Gold Medal at the Paris Universelle Exposition of 1889 where he exhibited a table of this model (later sold by Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 6-8 March 1895 lot 278 and again by Ribault-Menetière-Lenormand, Paris, 16 May 1979, lot 96).
The workshop closed in 1895 and Beurdeley's stock was sold over a number of auctions. A number of these sales were conducted by Galerie Georges Petit of Paris. Two catalogues of the collection were published in 1895 and sales were held between 6-8 March and again on 27-28 May.
In this 'jewel' of the finest Parisian cabinet-making, Beurdeley has used rare and 'exotic' Japanese lacquer panels, as did Weisweiler a hundred years earlier. The two flanking panels would have been taken from trays of a box, probably made around 1650 (a similar box was offered in these rooms on 6 April 1998, lot 197). The decoration of these combine elements of the "Portuguese" and "Dutch" phases of Japanese export lacquer and is similar to the celebrated Van Diemen box, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, which was specially commissioned by Anton van Diemen, Governor General of the Dutch East Indies 1636-45, as a gift for his wife. The central lacquer panel of the table was made around the turn of the 17th/18th century and is decorated in hirame and gold and silver hiramaki-e and takamaki-e. Centrally raised in this panel are three 'books' venerating the names of the 10th century poets Shui Wakashu, Gosen Wakashu and Kokin Wakashu. The panel would probably have been taken from a writing box.
Having been sold 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). Purchased by the Empress Eugénie at auction the year after his death, she placed it in her salon bleu at the Tuileries where she gave her audiences. As her purchase demonstrates, Eugénie was an avid collector of Louis XVI items, particularly if they had been owned by Queen Marie-Antoinette. The table is now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris.
Influencing fashion as she did, Marie-Antoinette's model of table was again à la mode during the last quarter of the 19th century, and a number of Parisian cabinet-makers who specialised in meubles de style produced copies and simplified versions of it. One example was exhibited by the Maison Fourdinois at the Exposition des arts du bois organised in 1882 by the Union centrale des Arts Décoratifs.
Born in 1847, Alfred Beurdeley (d. 1919), took over his father's business in 1875. The shop was located at the Pavillon de Hanovre, while his workshops were at 20 & 24 rue Dautancourt, Paris. He specialised in producing the most luxurious articles to the highest quality and was pre-eminent among the Parisian ébénistes, especially for the refinement of his ormolu, which was the best in Paris. Beurdeley's work is scarce and only occasionally appears for sale. Using only the most magnificent models, taking as his reference articles from the Garde-Meuble National, which incorporated the remaining collections from the former Royal Palaces. He exhibited at the major International Exhibitions, such as Paris in 1878 and Amsterdam in 1883, and was awarded the Gold Medal at the Paris Universelle Exposition of 1889 where he exhibited a table of this model (later sold by Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 6-8 March 1895 lot 278 and again by Ribault-Menetière-Lenormand, Paris, 16 May 1979, lot 96).
The workshop closed in 1895 and Beurdeley's stock was sold over a number of auctions. A number of these sales were conducted by Galerie Georges Petit of Paris. Two catalogues of the collection were published in 1895 and sales were held between 6-8 March and again on 27-28 May.
In this 'jewel' of the finest Parisian cabinet-making, Beurdeley has used rare and 'exotic' Japanese lacquer panels, as did Weisweiler a hundred years earlier. The two flanking panels would have been taken from trays of a box, probably made around 1650 (a similar box was offered in these rooms on 6 April 1998, lot 197). The decoration of these combine elements of the "Portuguese" and "Dutch" phases of Japanese export lacquer and is similar to the celebrated Van Diemen box, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, which was specially commissioned by Anton van Diemen, Governor General of the Dutch East Indies 1636-45, as a gift for his wife. The central lacquer panel of the table was made around the turn of the 17th/18th century and is decorated in hirame and gold and silver hiramaki-e and takamaki-e. Centrally raised in this panel are three 'books' venerating the names of the 10th century poets Shui Wakashu, Gosen Wakashu and Kokin Wakashu. The panel would probably have been taken from a writing box.