A fine burr amboyna gueridon, in the manner of Riesener the burr timbers of exceptional quality, the finely pierced gallery top over beautifully turned and milled supports. The triform base with shaped sabots.
RR
c. 1890
Jean-Henri Riesener (4 July 1734 – 6 January 1806) was the French royal ébéniste, working in Paris, whose work exemplified the early neoclassical "Louis XVI style". Riesener was born in Gladbeck, Westphalia, Germany, moved to Paris where he apprenticed soon after 1754 with Jean-François Oeben, whose widow he married; he was received master ébéniste in January 1768. The following year he began supplying furniture for the Crown and in July 1774 formally became ébéniste ordinaire du roi, "the greatest Parisian ébéniste of the Louis XVI period." Riesener was responsible for some of the richest examples of furniture in the Louis XVI style, as the French court embarked on furnishing commissions on a luxurious scale that had not been seen since the time of Louis XIV: between 1774 and 1784 he received on average commissions amounting to 100,000 livres per annum.
He and David Roentgen were Marie-Antoinette's favourite cabinet-makers.Besides commissions directly to the Garde-Meuble he delivered case furniture for the comte and comtesse de Provence, the comte d'Artois, Mesdames the king's aunts, and the ducs de Penthièvre, de la Rochefoucauld, Choiseul-Praslin, Biron, as well as rich fermiers-générals.
He used floral and figural marquetry techniques to a great extent, contrasting with refined parquetry and trelliswork grounds, in addition to gilt-bronze mounts. His carcases were more finely finished than those of many of his Parisian contemporaries, and he attempted to disguise the screw heads that attached his mounts with overhanging details of foliage. It seems likely that as a royal craftsman he was able to circumvent guild restrictions and produce his own ormolu|gilt-bronze mounts: Riesener's princely portrait by Antoine Vestier shows the cabinet-maker at one of his richly-mounted tables, with drawings for gilt-bronze mounts. Many of his pieces featured complicated mechanisms that raised or lowered table-tops or angled reading stands. Through his wife he was related to other master craftsmen in Paris, notably the ébénistes Roger Vandercruse Lacroix and Martin Carlin.
Height31.00 inch(78.7 cm)
Width20.00 inch(50.8 cm)
Depth20.00 inch(50.8 cm)
Ref No. 2077