BY ADAM WEISWEILER, CIRCA 1790

Adam Weisweiler, maître 26 March 1778.

This elegant thuya, mahogany and ebony bureau à gradin typifies the turning point in Weisweiler’s career, when he abandoned the monumental productions of the early Louis XVI period and opted for more sober models, in keeping with the evolution of fashion. The present lot can be seen to illustrate this fascinating moment of Anglo-French cultural appreciation when the ‘Anglomania’ of the Louis XVI court was matched by a growing taste for French furniture among the aristocracy of Great Britain. The decoration of these elegantly architectural pieces of furniture became simpler, with fewer bronzes, and the elaborate marquetry of flowers was replaced with magnificent exotic plain veneers. The adoption of this new era of sober and balanced furniture, yet above all, retaining quality of execution, was also followed by ebeniste’s such as Jean-Henri Riesener, Pierre Garnier and Canabas.

Adam Weisweiler (1744-1820) worked closely with the marchand-merciers Julliot and Daguerre but the luxury pieces, for which he is best known, were sold mostly through Daguerre. The latter, who counted the French, Neapolitan and Russian Royal families amongst his clientele, enjoyed particular favour in England under the patronage of George, Prince of Wales, later King George IV and even established a shop in 1788 in Piccadilly to supply the English nobility. George IV acquired several pieces of Weisweiler's furniture for Carlton House, his private residence, in the late 1780s, via Daguerre.

Weisweiler remained active until 1809, and it was his long-standing association with Daguerre that enabled him to continue to work for the export trade during the Revolution, thus allowing him to avoid the bankruptcy that befell so many of his colleagues.

A related table à la Tronchin, of virtually identical design but incorporating a mechanical top, was formerly in the collection of Georges Geoffroy, until sold Palais Galliera, Paris, 2 December 1971, lot 139, illustrated in P. Lemonnier, Weisweiler, Paris, 1983, p. 89.