Material Thuja wood, satinwood, amaranth, Japanese lacquer, chased and gilt bronze, griotte marble
Dimensions 126, 5 x 70 x 34,5 cm (49 3⁄4 x 27 1⁄2 x 13 1⁄2 in)
Place of Creation Paris
Status Vetted

About the Work

The form and ornamentation of this secretary are typical of the commissions given to cabinetmaker Adam Weisweiler by one of the most important marchands-merciers of the period, Dominique Daguerre in the final years of the Ancien Régime.

It can be compared to several pieces of furniture stamped by this cabinetmaker, including two secretaries with the same cabinet shape combined with lacquer panels and an interlacing spacer typical of this cabinetmaker's work. One is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (inv. 1977.1.1), while the second is in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (BK - 16653). The composite balusters, the palmettes of the frieze and the gilt bronze ribboned baguettes in the “chinoisante” style are probably the work of bronzemaker François Rémond. The superimposed balusters are reminiscent of the principle of the “Chinese columns” of Madame Victoire's furniture, described as such by Daguerre at the time of their delivery, and are in keeping with the Asian taste of this furniture. We find this same type of baluster on several pieces of furniture by Adam Weisweiler, such as a pietra dura paneled cabinet formerly in the Dalva Brothers Collection, a cabinet-style secretary now preserved in London at the Huntington Art Museum (27.21), and a pair of cabinet bottoms in the Louvre (OA 10478).


It remains impossible to name with certainty the bronzemaker who made these bronzes, but they were probably the work of one of the most important of the period, such as Pierre Gouthière or François Rémond. The latter, however, is of particular interest. Although he worked with some of Paris's leading cabinetmakers, he shared a privileged relationship with Daguerre, who played a major part in the creation of this type of secretary and was his main supplier. Thus, the only two pieces of furniture delivered by this dealer to the Court (the sumptuous three-leaf Japanese lacquer cabinet-style secretary made by Weisweiler and delivered in January 1784 for Louis XVI's Cabinet du Conseil, and the table delivered in November 1784 for Marie-Antoinette's service) were both adorned with bronzes supplied by Rémond, as evidenced by the invoices of the period.


This secretary belonged to Baron Alphonse de Rothschild and was in his residence at the Hôtel Saint-Florentin, adjacent to the Hôtel de la Marine on Place de la Concorde. The Hôtel Saint-Florentin became a quintessential example of the taste of Alphonse de Rothschild, whose monarchist political ideas were reflected in his predilection for French decorative arts of the Ancien Régime, creating a framework for the “Rothschild taste”. The secretary here studied may correspond to the descriptions of two pieces of furniture in the Baron's after death inventory, drawn up on October 16th, 1905. In the Red salon of the Baron's apartments, for example, it is described as a “Louis XVI period China lacquer secretary – estimated the sum of two thousand francs ...” and in a room overlooking Rue Saint- Florentin as a “Louis XVI period secretary with lacquer and gilt bronze medallion estimated ten thousand francs”.

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Provenance

- Part of the stock of the merchant Daval, rue de Seine in Paris, sold on January 28, 1822.
- Identified in the October 16th, 1905 after death inventory of Baron Alphonse de
Rothschild (1822-1905) in his Hôtel Saint-Florentin, then bequeathed to his son Baron Edouard de Rothschild (and subsequently by descent).
- Confiscated from the Rothschilds by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) in May 1940, during the Nazi occupation of France1.
- Recovered by the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section at Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany, then returned to France on October 18th, 1945, to be returned to the Rothschild family on March 1st, 1946.
- In 1949, it was located at 19, avenue Foch, in the home of Baron and Baroness Edouard de Rothschild.
- Former Habib Sabet Collection.

Literature

R.A.L. Lafitte papers 000/1037/1-2, Inventaire après décès du baron Alphonse de Rothschild, Tome I, 16 octobre 1905.
Archives du ministère de l’Europe et des affaires étrangères, Série CRA, Dossiers de réclamation adressés à la Commission de récupération artistique (1939-1974), 209SUP/12bis Dossier 45.224 –Edouard de Rothschild, Restitution du 26 février 1946, folio 7 et 232
Pierre Arizzoli-Clémentel, Le mobilier de Versailles XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, tome 2, Dijon, éditions Faton, 2002, p. 115, pp. 129-131.
Reinier Baarsen, Paris 1650-1900, Decorative Arts in the Rijksmuseum, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2013, pp. 446-451.
Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg,Base de données des objets d’art du Jeu de Paume, https://www.errproject.org/jeudepaume/card_view.php?CardId=12297
Daniëlle O. Kisluk,-Grosheide, Wolfram Koeppe, William Rieder, European furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Highlights of the Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2006.
Patricia Lemonnier, Weisweiler, Paris, éditions d’art Monelle Hayot, 1983.

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