D'après Jean-Henri Riesener (Gladbeck, 1734 ou... Lot n° 38

CYLINDER SECRETARY 19th century Made on the model of the one ordered by Marc-Antoine Thierry de Ville d'Avray who gave it to the Count of Provence Veneer in violet wood on oak and poplar frame; gilt bronze H. 121 cm ; W. 123 cm ; D. 65 cm This desk was conceived in the image of the famous "desk with cilindre of mahogany wood, (...) composed in the body of the desk of 5 drawers and two tablets with mouldings by the two sides, the table of the desk adjusted with slides, in the same way the closing consists in a cilindre, which by means of a turn of key develops, discovers all the papers and opens at the same time all the drawers [...]"1 that the general steward of the Furniture of the Crown Marc-Antoine Thierry de Ville d'Avray had ordered to Jean- Henri Riesener on July 6, 1784. The desk was delivered to him by the cabinetmaker on the following October 6 at the Hôtel du Garde-Meuble. A few months later, he had it put for his own use in the castle of Fontainebleau but had to part with it for the benefit of the Count of Provence, the future Louis XVIII, who suddenly expressed the need for it. In the following century, he furnished the cabinet of toilett e of the Count of Artois, the future Charles X, in the Tuileries Palace. This secretary with cylinder is today preserved in the Louvre (fig. 1). It inspired the Parisian cabinetmakers of the late 19th century. The model presented here is in violet wood. 1 Record of the delivery made by Riesener, in Paris, on October 6, 1784, quoted in D. Alcouffe, A. Dion-Tenenbaum and A. Lefébure, le Mobilier du Musée du Louvre, Dijon, Editions Faton, 1993, Tome I, p. 277.