Jean-Henri Riesener
Furniture by one of the greatest cabinet-makers of the eighteenth century
Roll top desk (bureau à cylindre)
c. 1775-80Oak, purplewood, mahogany, casuarina wood, holly, boxwood and sycamore, with gilt bronze mounts | 129.0 x 138.0 x 81.0 cm (whole object) | RCIN 2431
The overall form, decoration and quality of this desk suggests that it was made for a member of the French royal family, despite the lack of an identifying cipher or coat of arms. It is most similar to a desk made by Riesener for the comtesse de Provence in 1773 (now in the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum), and a desk probably made for Madame Adélaïde around 1775. The design for these desks, with their distinctive roll-top, derive from the desk which Riesener completed (to a design by Oeben) for Louis XV in 1769, the so-called Bureau du Roi.
Digital models
3D visualisations of the object
Creator(s)
Jean-Henri Riesener (1734-1806) (cabinet maker)
Acquirer(s)
Joseph Fogg (1788–1830) (dealer)
George Watson Taylor (1770–1841)
129.0 x 138.0 x 81.0 cm (whole object)
Possibly a member of the French royal family. George Watson Taylor, his sale, Christie's, 28 May 1825, lot 49 where bought by Robert Fogg for George IV, £107 2s.
Subject(s)
- Arts, Recreation, Entertainment & Sport
- Decorative techniques & surface decoration
- Floral decorations
- Bouquets
- Floral decorations
- Decorative techniques & surface decoration
- Natural Sciences & Mathematics
- Botany
- Systematic botany
- Plants & Flowers
- Flowering plants
- Water-lilies
- General botany
- Leaves
- Systematic botany
- Botany
Object type(s)
- furnishings
- furniture
- case furniture
- desks
- rolltop desks
- desks
- case furniture
- furniture
- Arts, Recreation, Entertainment & Sport
Other number(s)
M&S 243
