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Lot Essay
Designed in the ‘gôut-grec’ fashion, this bureau à cylindre is an homage to the great Parisian ébénistes and bronziers of the 1770s-1790s recalling the craftsmanship of Jean-Henri Riesener, Adam Weisweiler, and especially, Guillaume Benneman. The superb ormolu mounts of this period are refined using industrial techniques; the central drawer panel of this bureau à cylindre evokes that found on Weisweiler’s Japanese lacquer, steel and gilt bronze writing table, delivered in 1784, by the marchand-mercier, Dominique Daguerre, to the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, for Marie-Antoinette’s cabinet intérieur at the château de Saint-Cloud (D. Alcouffe, A Dion-Tenenbaum, A. Lefébure, Furniture Collections in the Louvre, vol. I, Dijon, 1993, p. 289, no. 97).
Many of the other mounts are found on the Royal commodes transformed by Benneman in the late 1780s, which were frequently copied at the end of the 19th century, predominantly by Picard’s contemporary, Henry Dasson (ibid., pp. 296-299, no. 100). These mounts include: the guilloche gallery, the upper frieze of archer’s quiver, torche d’hymen, representing love, and foliate branches, and on the front of the cylindre, the ‘M’ cypher, flanked by foliage, which are all virtually identical to those found on the commode à étagères, supplied to Marie-Antoinette for the salon de jeux at the château de Compiègne (P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 2002, p. 62). The ribbon-tied trophy and floral pendants are taken from another commode altered by Benneman for Louis XVI’s bedchamber at Compiègne; the latter had an illustrious history, leaving the château during the Revolution, and thereafter in the collections of Napoleon, Louis XVIII, Charles X and Louis Philippe. Napoleon III’s Second Empire saw a revival of the Louis XVI style sparked by Empress Eugènie's fascination with Marie-Antoinette. Empress Eugènie acquired Royal pieces dispersed after the Revolution, but also commissioned furniture from ébénistes of the day in the Louis XVI style.
Many of the other mounts are found on the Royal commodes transformed by Benneman in the late 1780s, which were frequently copied at the end of the 19th century, predominantly by Picard’s contemporary, Henry Dasson (ibid., pp. 296-299, no. 100). These mounts include: the guilloche gallery, the upper frieze of archer’s quiver, torche d’hymen, representing love, and foliate branches, and on the front of the cylindre, the ‘M’ cypher, flanked by foliage, which are all virtually identical to those found on the commode à étagères, supplied to Marie-Antoinette for the salon de jeux at the château de Compiègne (P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 2002, p. 62). The ribbon-tied trophy and floral pendants are taken from another commode altered by Benneman for Louis XVI’s bedchamber at Compiègne; the latter had an illustrious history, leaving the château during the Revolution, and thereafter in the collections of Napoleon, Louis XVIII, Charles X and Louis Philippe. Napoleon III’s Second Empire saw a revival of the Louis XVI style sparked by Empress Eugènie's fascination with Marie-Antoinette. Empress Eugènie acquired Royal pieces dispersed after the Revolution, but also commissioned furniture from ébénistes of the day in the Louis XVI style.