Object History
This magnificent commode is a superb late 19th century incarnation of one of the richest royal pieces of furniture that Riesener produced for Marie-Antoinette. The commode and companion secretaire (writing cabinet) were made in circa 1783 for the queen’s Grand Cabinet Intérieur at Versailles, where she kept the collection of Japanese lacquer boxes she had inherited from her mother, Empress Maria Theresa (1717 – 1780) of Austria. Lacquer wares were imported into Europe from China and Japan and pieces of lacquer were often incorporated into European furniture. Lacquer was extremely expensive and was reused in new pieces of furniture. The Japanese lacquer panels that Riesener re-used date to around 1680 and were taken from cabinets and folding screens. Incorporated into furniture, they complimented the collection of lacquer boxes on display. The sumptuous, lacquered panels are richly surrounded by a profusion of flowers in gilded bronze, making for a dazzlingly opulent display. As cabinetmaker to the king, Riesener was uniquely advantaged because he could bypass the guild system which prevented other cabinetmakers from casting their own gilt-bronzes. Himself outsourcing them to the metalworker François Rémond, Riesener’s gilt-bronze mountings were so superior because he could control their casting, chasing and fitting.
In 1787 the commode and secretaire were moved to Château de Saint-Cloud, the queen’s favourite château. They were set aside from the revolutionary sales and earmarked for the Louvre, but in 1795 were given in part payment to Abraham Alcan, a leading contractor of army supplies. They were next recorded in the collection of George Watson Taylor (1770-1841) at his country house, Erlestoke Park, in Wiltshire. At a sale held there in 1832 they were bought by the London cabinetmaker and agent Robert Hume, bidding for the Duke of Hamilton. Their celebrity was established by their reappearance in the Hamilton Palace Sale of 1882. The secretaire is illustrated in a photograph, and it sold for £9,450 to ‘F. Davis’. The companion commode made the same price and sold to the celebrated art dealer and furniture maker Samson Wertheimer (1811-1892). The appearance of the two pieces of furniture on the market gave the opportunity for them to be studied and replicas made, and it is to this time that the present commode dates.
After the Hamilton Palace sale, Riesener’s commode and secretaire entered the Vanderbilt collection, and in 1920 were given to the Metropolitan Museum by William K. Vanderbilt and are among highlights of the museum collection and considered the ‘jewel in the crown’ of Riesener’s oeuvre. Today they are possibly the best-known pieces of royal furniture outside France. Other nineteenth century examples sold at Christie’s, New York, 21 April 2009, lot 268 (commode) and lot 269 (secretaire).
