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Chest-of-drawers
  • Date: 1782
    by 1865 (various alterations made, eg carcase reveneered and current marble added)
  • Medium: Oak, mahogany, purplewood, ebony or ebonised wood, box, gilt bronze, brocatello marble, steel locks and key
  • Object size: 88.5 x 136.3 x 60.2 cm
  • Inv: F248
  • Location: Dining Room
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Description
Provenance
Marks/Inscriptions
  • In March 1782 Marie-Antoinette had two chests of drawers delivered for her newly-decorated apartment in the Château of Marly. One was placed in her bedroom, the other, its pair, was placed in the adjoining boudoir but was later inventoried in the bedroom, so it seems that they were intended to be together. One is now at Versailles, the other is thought to be this one.

    This chest of drawers looks very different from when Riesener delivered it. It has been reveneered, probably some time between 1795–1815, presumably for reasons of taste but maybe to dissociate it from its royal past. Originally it was veneered in the trellis marquetry used regularly by Riesener on his royal furniture. It also once had a floral gilt-bronze frame encircling a marquetry medallion on the front, in the manner of other pieces made for Marie-Antoinette (see F247 in the Wallace Collection). Its marble top has been replaced, and was originally white, more in keeping with the white décor of Marie-Antoinette’s apartment at Marly. It is possible that the missing marquetry plaque and gilt-bronze medallion are the ones in the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum (inv. no. D6 871). The gilt-bronze mounts are spectacular and characteristic of the highly detailed and naturalistic mounts favoured by Riesener for the queen after 1780. Royal records show that the mounts on the Marly pair of chests of drawers were gilded by François Rémond (1747–1812).