AN ENGLISH ORMOLU-MOUNTED MAHOGANY DRESSING TABLE

The present cabinet is a faithful replica of one probably by Adam Weisweiler dated to 1784-1789, likely commissioned by the celebrated purveyor of luxury goods to the Ancien Régime, marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre, and today in The Wallace Collection (F328). In its close replication of the 18th century model, the present cabinet – of English manufacture – makes use of a similar acajou moucheté, or spotted bird’s-eye mahogany, de rigueur in the late 18th century and revived for use in the reproduction of very fashionable Ancien Régime models in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.