Lot Essay
This commode, with its frieze mount of trumpeting satyrs and vine, is a faithful copy of that by Adam Weisweiler, supplied in 1788 by Daguerre for the Cabinet intérieur of Louis XVI at Saint-Cloud for 3,000 L. Weisweiler made a repertoire of similar commodes with fluted pilasters to the angles and characteristic hinged panel doors and, as becoming of the oeuvre of the celebrated maître-ébéniste, the model remained à la mode through the 19th century, particularly during the Second Empire when Empress Eugènie's fascination with Marie-Antoinette revived the taste for the Louis XVI style. Celebrated 19th century examples of comparable quality to the present lot are recorded by Durand Fils (Christie's, New York, 9 April 2008, lot 103) and later by François Linke (Christie's, London, 18 March 2004, lot 42).