Beschreibung:

Y A PAIR OF LOUIS XVI ORMOLU MOUNTED, MARQUETRY AND PARQUETRY SIDE CABINETS
BY J H RIESENER, ADAPTED FROM CORNER CABINETS
Each of slight stepped serpentine form, sycamore, fruitwoods and Amaranth with a rectangular mottled russet marble top inset within gilt bronze petal mouldings, drawer to the frieze mounted with guilloche enclosing flowerheads with acorns and oak leaves, above a pair of tambour doors inlaid with large sprays of moss and cabbage-roses, hollyhocks and tulips, one stamped faintly twice on the front right corner J.H. RIESENER
100cm high, 101cm wide, 29cm deep
Provenance:
Sotheby's London, 1st July 1966, Lot 134 where described as: 'A HIGHLY IMPORTANT PAIR OF EARLY LOUIS XVI ORMOLU-MOUNTED MARQUETRY AND PARQUETRY SIDE CABINETS, Signed J H Riesener' when purchased for the late owner's mother by Pelham Galleries, London
The Estate of a deceased Gentleman
Jean-Henri Riesener maître in 1768.
In their present form as side cabinets, they can be usefully compared with a single cabinet made by Riesener in 1773 for Pierre-Elisabeth de Fontanieu, the Intendant et Contrôleur Général des Meubles de la Couronne, for his own official residence in the Place Louis XV in Paris. Fontanieu's cabinet was in the famous collection of John Jones bequeathed to the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1882. Like the present pair, the cabinet was converted from a corner cupboard, probably in the mid-19th century (V&A 1082-1882).
Another comparison is with the commode in the Hôtel du Garde Meuble, Paris (Al-Thani collection) which Riesener delivered in 1775 for the bedroom of Madame Randon de Pommery, wife of the Garde-Général of the Garde Meuble de la Couronne. The commode is fitted with almost identical central apron mounts and has strikingly similar guilloche panels to the side frieze drawers - interspersed with comparable oval paterae mounts above comparable scrolling floral feet mounts. The commode was sold from the Desmarais Collection, Christie's New York, 30 April 2019 lot 51, $1,155,000.
Literature:
Pierre Verlet, Le mobilier Français du XVIIIème Siècle, 1967, pl. 13.
F.J.B. Watson, Louis XVI Furniture, fig. 54.
P. Kjellberg, The French Furniture of the XVIIIth Century, Paris, 1989, p. 696, cat A.
Comparative Literature :
Helen Jacobsen, Rufus Bird & Mia Jackson, Jean-Henri Riesener Cabinetmaker to Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, London, 2020
We are grateful to Rufus Bird, Deputy Surveyor and Surveyor of the Queen's Works of Art 2010-2021 for his contribution to this catalogue entry.