Chest of drawers
Order image © All images subject to copyright
Rectangular break-fronted chest of drawers, with incurved splayed ends and canted forecorners, which is supported on four short out-turned feet. It contains two principal drawers below a frieze divided into three shallow drawers, all secured by individual locks. The trapeze-shaped panel in the centre is veneered with a trophy in a variety of woods against a background of sycamore originally stained grey. It is dominated on the left by a vase of green-stained burr wood and casuarina wood. Its handles are in the form of serpents and it is seemingly mounted below the collar with a femalle mask and drapery. The other motifs, which are scattered on a ground of a burr veneer, include a shepherd's crook knotted with a ribbon, a tilted basket of peaches, drapery, laurel leaves, and flowers (roses, carnations, etc). Simulated shadows are indicated by singed areas of veneer woods below the leaves and flowers.The pictorial panel is flanked by panels of fret marquetry, which is composed of ribbons of bois satiné which break at the intersections into diamond shapes veneered with green-stained burr wood. Within each compartment is a water-lily of casuarina wood on a ground of sycamore originally stained grey. To give the illusion of decoration in relief the ribboning is edged with a fillet of boxwood along its upper edges and with another of ebony or ebonised wood along its lower edges. The outer panels are veneered with bois satiné edged with black and white fillets.
This chest of drawers was supplied to Madame Élisabeth (youngest sister of Louis XVI) when, at the age of 14, she was granted her own suite of apartments at Versailles for her bedroom in her apartments at Versailles. It was delivered to her bedroom on 29 September 1778. It was delivered along with two other chests of drawers of the same model, and two corner cupboards for her Grand Cabinet (now lost or reveneered).
The same marquetry compostion, of a pastoral trophy including a simulated marble vase mounted with handles in the form of twisted snakes, was used on a number of chests of drawers, including that delivered to the cabinet de retraite of Louis XVI at Fontainebleau, which was later moved to the library at Versailles (where it is today).
It was recorded as still at Versailles by the revolutionary government in 1792, but its location between then and its purchase by Miss Alice de Rothschild is unknown. She acquired it before 1906, when she referred to it in her Catalogue. She displayed it in her first floor sitting room at Waddesdon Manor, as a pair to WM 2251.
Other exhibition labels
- This chest of drawers was supplied to Madame Élisabeth (youngest sister of Louis XVI) when, at the age of 14, she was granted her own suite of apartments at Versailles for her bedroom in her apartments at Versailles. It was delivered to her bedroom on 29 September 1778. It was delivered along with two other chests of drawers of the same model, and two corner cupboards for her Grand Cabinet (now lost or reveneered).
- The same marquetry compostion, of a pastoral trophy including a simulated marble vase mounted with handles in the form of twisted snakes, was used on a number of chests of drawers, including that delivered to the cabinet de retraite of Louis XVI at Fontainebleau, which was later moved to the library at Versailles (where it is today).
- It was recorded as still at Versailles by the revolutionary government in 1792, but its location between then and its purchase by Miss Alice de Rothschild is unknown. She acquired it before 1906, when she referred to it in her Catalogue. She displayed it in her first floor sitting room at Waddesdon Manor, as a pair to WM 2251.
Dimensions (mm) / weight (mg)
1000 x 1800 x 673
Marks
J.H. RIESENER
Maker's mark
3 times on top, 2 on left forecorner, 1 on right forecorner
Provenance
- Supplied to Madame Élisabeth of France (b. 1764, d. 1794) in 1778; acquired by Alice de Rothschild (b.1847, d. 1922) before 1906; inherited by her great-nephew James de Rothschild (b.1878, d.1957); bequeathed to Waddesdon (National Trust) in 1957.
Collection
- Waddesdon (National Trust)
- Bequest of James de Rothschild, 1957
Bibliography
- ♦; Christian Baulez, fall-front desk, La Revue du Louvre et des musées de France, 3, June 1998, 13-14
- Pierre Ramond; Chefs-d'Oeuvre des Marqueteurs; vol 3; Paris; Éditions Gallimard; 1999; Vol. III, pp. 62 - 63
- Geoffrey de Bellaigue, National Trust 100 Treasures, 1995
- Les collections exceptionnelles des Rothschild: Waddesdon Manor (Hors-série de l'Estampille/l'Objet d'Art, No. 14); Dijon; Éditions Faton; 2004; Page 10 - 21
- ♦, ♦; Jeanne Faton, Waddesdon Manor: joyau des collections anglaises, L'Estampille. L' Objet d'Art, September 2002; p.91
- Versailles: deux siècles d'histoire de l'art. Études et chroniques de Christian Baulez; Versailles; Société des Amis de Versailles; 2007; p. 147
- Christopher Maxwell, ‘’In the most perfect taste’’: the Rothschilds’ purchases from the Hamilton Palace sale of 1882, The Burlington Magazine
- Helen Jacobsen, Rufus Bird, Mia Jackson; Jean-Henri Riesener: Cabinetmaker to Louis XVI & Marie-Antoinette Furniture in the Wallace Collection, the Royal Collection & Waddesdon Manor; Philip Wilson Publishers; cat. 11