Lot Essay
Adam Weisweiler, maître in 1778.
With its characteristic intricate pierced stretchers, tapering legs and rising mechanism, this table is characteristic of the fashionable ‘goût anglais’ of the 1780s promoted by the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre and executed for him by the German-born cabinet-maker Adam Weisweiler (1744-1820). This model was directly influenced by British cabinetmaking, and, interestingly, the stretcher - which takes the form of a pierced double baluster cross - is identical to that found on a breakfast table designed by Thomas Chippendale in 1762.
A number of tables à thé of this model, with very slight variants to the base of the shaft and the gilt-bronze ornamentation, stamped by or attributed to Weisweiler, are known:
- one recorded in an 1787 inventory as being in the salon de compagnie of the duchesse de Polignac at Versailles (P. Lemonnier, Weisweiler, Paris, 1983, p. 94).
- one donated by the Duchess of Windsor as a substitute for the former table (P. Arizzoli-Clémentel, Versailles, Furniture of the Royal Palace, Dijon, 2002, p. 127).
- one with brèche d'Alep marble trays, stamped (E. Schlumberger: Le Pavillon de Musique de Madame, Connaissance des Arts n°266, March 1964, then sold Pierre Cardin–Rémy Le Fur, 17 June 2008, lot 94).
- one stamped table formerly in the Seligman Collection (C. Frégnac Les Styles Français, Paris 1975, p.127, n°6).
- one sold Ader-Picard-Tajan, Paris, 26 November 1974, lot 99.
- former Petavel Collection sold Christie's, London, 25 March 1971, lot 84.
- one sold Sotheby's, Paris, 14 April 2010, lot 137 (72,750 EUR).
- former Eleanor Post Close & Antal Post de Bekessy Collection, sold Sotheby's, Paris, 17-20 December 2017, lot 282.
With its characteristic intricate pierced stretchers, tapering legs and rising mechanism, this table is characteristic of the fashionable ‘goût anglais’ of the 1780s promoted by the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre and executed for him by the German-born cabinet-maker Adam Weisweiler (1744-1820). This model was directly influenced by British cabinetmaking, and, interestingly, the stretcher - which takes the form of a pierced double baluster cross - is identical to that found on a breakfast table designed by Thomas Chippendale in 1762.
A number of tables à thé of this model, with very slight variants to the base of the shaft and the gilt-bronze ornamentation, stamped by or attributed to Weisweiler, are known:
- one recorded in an 1787 inventory as being in the salon de compagnie of the duchesse de Polignac at Versailles (P. Lemonnier, Weisweiler, Paris, 1983, p. 94).
- one donated by the Duchess of Windsor as a substitute for the former table (P. Arizzoli-Clémentel, Versailles, Furniture of the Royal Palace, Dijon, 2002, p. 127).
- one with brèche d'Alep marble trays, stamped (E. Schlumberger: Le Pavillon de Musique de Madame, Connaissance des Arts n°266, March 1964, then sold Pierre Cardin–Rémy Le Fur, 17 June 2008, lot 94).
- one stamped table formerly in the Seligman Collection (C. Frégnac Les Styles Français, Paris 1975, p.127, n°6).
- one sold Ader-Picard-Tajan, Paris, 26 November 1974, lot 99.
- former Petavel Collection sold Christie's, London, 25 March 1971, lot 84.
- one sold Sotheby's, Paris, 14 April 2010, lot 137 (72,750 EUR).
- former Eleanor Post Close & Antal Post de Bekessy Collection, sold Sotheby's, Paris, 17-20 December 2017, lot 282.