A LOUIS XVI ORMOLU-MOUNTED MAHOGANY TABLE À ÉCRIRE

Jean-Henri Riesener, maître in 1768.
With its elegant lines and remarkable quality of execution, this table-à-écrire is characteristic of the oeuvre of the celebrated cabinetmaker Jean-Henri Riesener. It is closely related to the models executed by the ébéniste for the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne between 1780 and 1785, such as the desk delivered in 1784 for Marie-Antoinette’s cabinet intérieur in the Tuileries, now at the National Gallery of Art, Washington (acc. num. 1942.9.407). A related table of identical overall shape, also with sophisticated mechanism of a sliding top enclosing a reading stand, was sold at Christie’s, London, 4 June 2014, lot 542. Another similar table in plain mahogany, also stamped by Riesener, was sold from the collection of Madame de Polès, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 21 June 1927, lot 282.