Drop-front desk (secrétaire à abattant or secrétaire en cabinet)

ca. 1787
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 529
This may have been the last piece that Dominique Daguerre (d. 1796), a dealer in luxury goods, delivered to Marie-Antoinette (1755-1793) at the château de Versailles. A porcelain-mounted secretary was, in fact, among the treasured possessions the queen entrusted to Daguerre for safekeeping in October 1789, shortly after a mob invaded the palace and the royal family was forced to return to the château des Tuileries in Paris. Bouillat, one of the best flower painters at Sèvres, may well have painted the beautiful ribbon-tied bouquet on the central plaque. The blue pointillé border was probably the work of Madame Taillandier who, with her husband Vincent, specialized in this decoration. The factory's paper label, printed with the interlaced L's and inscribed with the price (336 lives), is pasted on the back of the rectangular plaque.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Drop-front desk (secrétaire à abattant or secrétaire en cabinet)
  • Maker: Attributed to Adam Weisweiler (French, 1744–1820)
  • Manufactory: Porcelain plaques made by Sèvres Manufactory (French, 1740–present)
  • Decorator: Porcelain plaques decorated by Edme François Bouillat père (French,1739/40–1810, active 1758–1800)
  • Decorator: Porcelain plaques decorated by Geneviève Taillandier (active 1774–98)
  • Factory: Jasperware medallions by Josiah Wedgwood and Sons (British, Etruria, Staffordshire, 1759–present)
  • Maker: Some mounts by Pierre Rémond (French, Paris 1747–1812 Paris)
  • Date: ca. 1787
  • Culture: French, Paris and Sèvres
  • Medium: Oak veneered with burl thuya, amaranth, mahogany, satinwood, holly, and ebonized holly; painted metal; one soft-paste porcelain plaque; fifteen jasper medallions; gilt-bronze mounts; marble; leather (not original)
  • Dimensions: Overall: 51 × 27 × 16 in. (129.5 × 68.6 × 40.6 cm)
  • Classification: Woodwork-Furniture
  • Credit Line: Gift of Samuel H. Kress Foundation, 1958
  • Object Number: 58.75.57
  • Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

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