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Lot Essay
Of superb quality, this magnificent dressing-table is a direct copy of the celebrated model by Adam Weisweiler (1744-1820), delivered in 1784 by the famous Parisian marchand-mercier Daguerre to the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, at a cost of 3260 livres. It was placed in Marie-Antoinette's cabinet intrieur at her Chteau de Saint-Cloud. She subsequently gave it to her close friend Madame de Polignac.
Having been sold after the revolution, the Weisweiler table was discovered in a marchand's shop on the Quai Voltaire in 1840 by the Prince de Beauvau (d. 1864). Purchased by the Empress Eugnie at auction the year after his death, she placed it in her salon bleu at the Tuileries where she gave her audiences. As her purchase demonstrates, Eugnie was an avid collector of Louis XVI items, particularly if they had been owned by Queen Marie-Antoinette. The table is now in the Muse du Louvre, Paris.
Influencing fashion as she did, Marie-Antoinette's model of table was again la mode during the last quarter of the 19th century, and a number of Parisian cabinet-makers who specialised in meubles de style produced copies and simplified versions of it. One example was exhibited by the Maison Fourdinois at the Exposition des arts du bois organised in 1882 by the Union centrale des Arts Dcoratifs.
Born in the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venice in 1817, Paul Sormani produced standard and fantasy furniture from a number of locations in Paris from the mid-19th century. In 1858 he expanded his business, producing articles, styled from the previous century's matre bnistes and in 1867 established workshops at 10, rue Charlot. The business continued, after his death in 1877, under the direction of his son Paul-Charles and later moved to 134 boulevard Haussman.
A similar table, signed by Alfred Beurdeley, was sold in these rooms, 29 October 1998, lot 151.
Having been sold after the revolution, the Weisweiler table was discovered in a marchand's shop on the Quai Voltaire in 1840 by the Prince de Beauvau (d. 1864). Purchased by the Empress Eugnie at auction the year after his death, she placed it in her salon bleu at the Tuileries where she gave her audiences. As her purchase demonstrates, Eugnie was an avid collector of Louis XVI items, particularly if they had been owned by Queen Marie-Antoinette. The table is now in the Muse du Louvre, Paris.
Influencing fashion as she did, Marie-Antoinette's model of table was again la mode during the last quarter of the 19th century, and a number of Parisian cabinet-makers who specialised in meubles de style produced copies and simplified versions of it. One example was exhibited by the Maison Fourdinois at the Exposition des arts du bois organised in 1882 by the Union centrale des Arts Dcoratifs.
Born in the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venice in 1817, Paul Sormani produced standard and fantasy furniture from a number of locations in Paris from the mid-19th century. In 1858 he expanded his business, producing articles, styled from the previous century's matre bnistes and in 1867 established workshops at 10, rue Charlot. The business continued, after his death in 1877, under the direction of his son Paul-Charles and later moved to 134 boulevard Haussman.
A similar table, signed by Alfred Beurdeley, was sold in these rooms, 29 October 1998, lot 151.