Just wood and a little bit of metal - two mechanical tables for Marie Antoinette by Jean-Henri Riesener

Marie-Antoinette’s table à écrire.

Described in an inventory of 1789 simply as a writing table, this piece offered Marie-Antoinette several more options beyond that. Made by Jean-Henri Riesener in 1781 for the queen’s Grand Cabinet Intérieur at Versailles, the table is fitted with a mechanism that allows the top to slide back while, at the same time, the main drawer moves forward. The central velvet-lined compartment of the drawer is topped by a writing surface that can be ratcheted up to form a lectern or reversed to show a mirror. The marquetry surface of the table's top is richly embellished with a pattern of trelliswork enclosing rosettes, a design feature frequently used by Riesener on his furniture meant for the queen. The central medallion encloses a trophy with the attributes of poetry and literature and the Latin motto Numine afflatur - “inspired by divinity”. The marquetry decoration is now faded, but judging from the better-preserved marquetry on the lids of the inner compartments - which can be released by pressing a small button on the drawer front - and on the outer sides of the drawers, visible when the table is open, the table's surface must have been very colorful. The cabinetmaker achieved this through a clever selection of contrasting woods and the use of organic - and, therefore, not very permanent - dyes to expand the natural palette of the wood. The table is mounted with gilt-bronze moldings around the top, along the lower edge of the frieze, and running down the tapering legs. Gilt-bronze plaques in relief adorn the drawer front and the sides. Four years after it was delivered, this multifunctional table mécanique was sent to the Château de Saint-Cloud, where it was placed in the queen’s dressing-room.

The design of the gilt-bronze plaques at the sides of the table gracefully combines the two outermost figural elements of the drawer front plaque.

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Table mécanique of Marie-Antoinette.

The number 2964 painted underneath the top of this table corresponds to an entry in the Journal du Garde-Meuble de la Couronne and identifies this multipurpose table as one of the first pieces ordered by Marie-Antoinette from her favorite cabinetmaker, Jean-Henri Riesener. The table was delivered to Versailles on December 12, 1778, exactly a week before the long-awaited birth of her first child, Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte. To alleviate Marie-Antoinette’s discomfort during the advanced state of her pregnancy, this table was fitted by Jean-Gotfritt Mercklein, a mécanicien in her service, with a special mechanism. Hidden behind a finely decorated gilt-bronze plaque at either end, this mechanism allowed the queen to use the table in either a seated or a standing position. By means of a detachable crank at one side, the top can be raised or lowered on ratcheted metal shafts that move up or down within the hollow legs. The table could therefore be used for various activities such as eating and writing, but also for reading and dressing, since the central panel of the top can be lifted to form a lectern and reversed to reveal a mirror. Pressing buttons along the front edge of the table releases the hinged lids to six compartments for the storage of small items, perhaps cosmetics and/or writing implements. Over time, the intricate marquetry decoration has lost some of its original coloring. Framed alternately with natural - originally white - holly and black-stained holly, the bois satiné trelliswork encloses rosettes cut of an originally bright yellow barberry wood against a stained, soft yellow sycamore ground.

The inner surface of a lid of one of the table's six compartments.

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Text - much - adapted from that on the website of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; both tables are in their collection.

Barbette, la légende - photographs by Man Ray, 1926 and circa 1930

 

Surface light - still-lifes and flowers by Sir William Nicholson

Begonias, 1939-40.

The Silver Casket and Red Leather Box, 1920.

The Black Pansy, 1910.

Pink Lustre Mug and Fan, 1909.

Pink Peonies, 1913.

Mushrooms, 1940.

The Lustre Bowl with Green Peas, 1911.

White Anemones, ND.

Glass and Fruit, 1938.

The Lowestoft Bowl, 1911.

Stocks and Silver, 1918.

Winter Anemones, 1927.

Mushrooms, 1927.

Flowers in a Vase, 1949.

Silver, 1938.

Still Life with White Freesias, 1917.

Double Anemones, 1921.

Miss Simpson's Boots, 1919.

 The Marquess of Wellington Jug, 1920.

The Lustre Bowl, 1911.

Flower Piece, 1949.

The Blue Gloves, circa 1923.

Pink Roses in a Silver Lustre Vase, 1913.

Books and Things, 1920.

Cyclamen, circa 1937.

A Staffordshire Group, 1909.

Lilies of the Valley, 1927.

Glass bowl, 1920.

The Silver Casket, 1919.

The Chinese Vase, 1911.

Gold Jug, 1937.

Glass Jug With Plates and Pears, circa 1930s.

The Lustre Bowl, 1908.

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The artist, by E. O. Hoppé, 1912.

Sir William Newzam Prior Nicholson (5 February 1872, Newark-on-Trent – 16 May 1949, Blewbury), British painter of still-lifes, landscapes, and portraits. He also worked as a printmaker, illustrator, author of children's books, and as a designer for the theater. Born the youngest son of an industrialist and Conservative MP, he had art lessons from the painter, politician, and art-master William Cubley, who had been a pupil of Sir William Beechey who had, in turn, been a pupil of Sir Joshua Reynolds. From the autumn of 1891 he attended the Académie Julian in Paris, but after six months returned home. In the spring of 1893, Nicholson eloped with Mabel Pryde, whom he had known for several years; they would have four children, the eldest being the celebrated painter Ben Nicholson. His wife died in July 1918 during the Spanish flu epidemic, and his second son, Anthony, died only three months later of wounds received in action during the concluding days of WWI. But, previously, from about 1910 until he remarried in 1919, his housekeeper, Marie Laquelle, was also his mistress. Then, in October 1919, he married Edith Minnie, daughter of Sir Lionel Phillips, first baronet who, under the name Elizabeth Drury, was also a painter. They had two sons and a daughter, and Edie had two children from her previous marriage. Nicholson's books for children all date from the 1920s, around which time he lived at the Old Manor House, Sutton Veny, Wiltshire. From 1935 until his death, his companion was the novelist Marguerite Steen. The artist had been separated from his second wife for some years, although they remained on good terms; though she promised to give him a divorce, she never did so. In later life, Nicholson lived at Blewbury in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire), where he died at the age of seventy-seven.

"Bloomsbury Family" (the painter Sir William Nicholson, his wife Mabel, and children), by Sir William Orpen, 1907.
(The artist appears to be wearing the same dressing gown as in the Hoppé portrait, above.)