Drop-front desk (secrétaire à abattant or secrétaire en cabinet)

Adam Weisweiler|Sèvres Manufactory|Edme François Bouillat père|Pierre Rémond|Josiah Wedgwood and Sons|Geneviève Taillandier

ca. 1787 · Oak veneered with burl thuya, amaranth, mahogany, satinwood, holly, and ebonized holly; painted metal; one soft-paste porcelain plaque; fifteen jasper medallions; gilt-bronze mounts; marble; leather (not original) · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

This may have been the last piece that Dominique Daguerre (d. 1796), a dealer in luxury goods, delivered to Marie-Antoinette (1755-1793) at the château de Versailles. A porcelain-mounted secretary was, in fact, among the treasured possessions the queen entrusted to Daguerre for safekeeping in October 1789, shortly after a mob invaded the palace and the royal family was forced to return to the château des Tuileries in Paris. Bouillat, one of the best flower painters at Sèvres, may well have painted the beautiful ribbon-tied bouquet on the central plaque. The blue pointillé border was probably the work of Madame Taillandier who, with her husband Vincent, specialized in this decoration. The factory's paper label, printed with the interlaced L's and inscribed with the price (336 lives), is pasted on the back of the rectangular plaque.

Artist

Adam Weisweiler|Sèvres Manufactory|Edme François Bouillat père|Pierre Rémond|Josiah Wedgwood and Sons|Geneviève Taillandier

Date

ca. 1787

Medium

Oak veneered with burl thuya, amaranth, mahogany, satinwood, holly, and ebonized holly; painted metal; one soft-paste porcelain plaque; fifteen jasper medallions; gilt-bronze mounts; marble; leather (not original)

Culture

French, Paris and Sèvres

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Gift of Samuel H. Kress Foundation, 1958