AFTER THE MODEL BY JEAN-HENRI RIESENER, LAST QUARTER 19TH CENTURY

Although for many years thought to have been made for Marie-Antoinette, Riesener's original rectangular version of the present table, known as the Table des Muses, was in fact supplied in 1771 at a cost of 6,000 livres for the personal use of Pierre-Elisabeth de Fontanieu, Intendant et Contrôleur général des Meubles de la Couronne from 1767-83. During the Directory, the table was used in the salle du Conseil des 'Directeurs', and later it was moved by the Empress Eugènie to the Petit Trianon, where it remains today (see G. van der Kemp, Versailles, London, 1978, p. 230). The model was very popular during the latter part of the 19th century and was reproduced, most frequenly in its original rectangular form, by celebrated makers such as Beurdeley, Dasson and Linke, among others.