Tea at Trianon: The Queen's Commode

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, March 10, 2013

The Queen's Commode

The Wallace Collection is sponsoring a film about the conservation of Queen Marie-Antoinette’s Riesener commode.

This sense of exploration has been expanded in our newest conservation film. The Wallace Collection has a remarkable collection of ten pieces made by or attributed to Jean-Henri Riesener. Riesener started out as a poor German immigrant but an opportune marriage to the widow of his former master, Jean-François Oeben, allowed him control of his workshop, side-lining strict French guild regulations set up to prevent foreign competition. By 1774 he had received the official title of ébéniste du roi (Cabinetmaker to the King,) a title fitting for his artistically skilled and technically accomplished production.

Conservation work is ongoing at the Collection and all furniture and metalwork is conserved on site, yet this remains an unknown world for many visitors. Our conservators identify pieces and produce a thorough conservation proposal, working in tandem with the Curator to ensure the works of art remain in the best possible condition for the future. Work is characterised by minimum intervention wherever possible and only well proven, tested methods are used....

The gilt bronze royal insignia of Marie-Antoinette’s initials had been carefully cut so that part of it could be removed, therefore potentially making the piece unconnected to Marie Antoinette. It’s well known that Riesener was employed after the French Revolution to remove royal insignia from his furniture; many of the pieces he re-purchased himself in the hope of selling them on. Analysis of the metal using an XRF portable scanner showed that the removeable section of the mount has the same composition as the rest of it, so perhaps it was taken off at the time of the Revolution, and then re-inserted (perhaps by Riesener himself) at a later date when it was no longer politically unwise to acknowledge Royal connections. Unfortunately it wasn’t a successful tactic for Riesener, who died in comparative poverty in 1806. (Read entire article.)