Lot Essay
The design of the present desk relates closely to that of the marquetry and parquetry secrtaire cylindre supplied in 1784 to Marie-Antoinette at the Tuileries by the celebrated bniste, Jean-Henri Riesener (matre 1768).
In the absence of any stamp or signature, surprising for a piece so finely executed, it is difficult to make a firm attribution as to the maker of this desk. However, both the choice itself of the piece copied and the superior quality of the mounts, Japanese lacquer panels and interior parquetry, are consistent with the work of both Alfred Beurdeley (d. 1919) and Henry Dasson (d. 1895). Producing copies and interpretations of pieces by master bnistes such as Riesener, Weisweiler and Carlin, and using as their reference articles from the Garde-Meuble National, which had assimilated the remaining collections from the former Royal palaces, Beurdeley and Dasson both exhibited at the major international exhibitions, such as in Paris in 1878, Amsterdam in 1883 and again in Paris at the Exposition Universelle of 1889.
A copy of the Riesener bureau cylindre by Henry Dasson was sold Christie's London, 3 November 1994, lot 206.
In the absence of any stamp or signature, surprising for a piece so finely executed, it is difficult to make a firm attribution as to the maker of this desk. However, both the choice itself of the piece copied and the superior quality of the mounts, Japanese lacquer panels and interior parquetry, are consistent with the work of both Alfred Beurdeley (d. 1919) and Henry Dasson (d. 1895). Producing copies and interpretations of pieces by master bnistes such as Riesener, Weisweiler and Carlin, and using as their reference articles from the Garde-Meuble National, which had assimilated the remaining collections from the former Royal palaces, Beurdeley and Dasson both exhibited at the major international exhibitions, such as in Paris in 1878, Amsterdam in 1883 and again in Paris at the Exposition Universelle of 1889.
A copy of the Riesener bureau cylindre by Henry Dasson was sold Christie's London, 3 November 1994, lot 206.