ATTRIBUTED TO JEAN-HENRI RIESENER, CIRCA 1775-80

This magnificent occasional table is a rare survival of luxurious furniture conceived to be moved, from room to room or palace to palace, and is one of the most unusual and unexpected items within the oeuvre of Jean-Henri Riesener (maître in 1768). It is fitted with removable legs and undertiers as well as carrying-handles to the sides, and is closely related to a small group of writing or occasional tables, including examples made for Queen Marie-Antoinette. Almost certainly conceived for a member of the French Royal family or the Royal court travelling between the Royal residences, the table reappeared in the 19th century in the celebrated Hillingdon collection in which it remained until sold by Christie’s in 1972.

This particular model appears to be en suite with a jewel casket and sécretaire-on-stand, which displays the same legs, marquetry and carrying-handles (Partridge Recent Acquisitions, 1998, pp. 122-3, no. 50), but in addition is surmounted by a removable coffer with hinged lid enclosing an upholstered interior in blue silk, the fall-front revealing a writing-surface and fitted interior, and the undertiers are lined with blue silk and display a gallery of larger proportions (it is not clear whether the legs and undertiers are detachable). Together they form a small group within Riesener’s oeuvre, accompanied by only two further travelling secretaires, of larger scale but also with detachable legs:
- a ‘coffre-secretaire’ with similar legs and identical handles to the sides is in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. OA 9462)
- another secretaire de voyage with legs in steel and also with two tiers in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (inv. 25881)

Both these latter pieces are in mahogany and were conceived later in Riesener’s career circa 1780-90. The present table and accompanying coffre/sécretaire-on-stand, with tulipwood and amaranth veneers arranged in imitation of straw-work, could be dated earlier in his oeuvre to circa 1775, as the overall design is reminiscent of pieces by Jean-François Oeben (1721-1763) in whose workshop Jean-Henri Riesener was trained before taking the atelier over in 1763. The goût grec ormolu pierced legs of both pieces, headed by capitals and with bold inward scrolling acanthus feet, are indeed related to those visible on a table à ouvrage almost certainly executed by Oeben, visible on the portrait of Madame de Pompadour by François-Hubert Drouais now in the National Gallery, London (inv. NG6440). Two small tables by Oeben and possibly conceived in collaboration with Riesener with similar legs are recorded in the Wallace Collection (F313 and F311). The finely chased pierced interlaced handles can also be found on a jewel coffer and secretaire by Jean-Henri Riesener now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (acc. num. 1106-1882).

THE HILLINGDON COLLECTION
This table once formed part of the Hillingdon collection, one of the great English nineteenth-century collections of French furniture, which was formed by the banker Sir Charles Mills, Bt. (1792-1872) and augmented by his son, the 1st Lord Hillingdon (1830-1898) who was elevated to the peerage in 1886. The family lived at Camelford House in Mayfair, where this table sat in the Morning Room, as well as at Hillingdon Court in Middlesex and latterly at Wildernesse Park in Sevenoaks, Kent. The collection was noteworthy particularly for its numerous porcelain-mounted pieces of furniture of both the Louis XV and Louis XVI period. In 1936 the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, acquired seventeen of its most celebrated pieces (see Decorative Art from the Samuel H Kress Collection, London, 1964, pp. 116-9).