Jean-Henri Riesener: Cabinetmaker to Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette

by Bloomsbury USA

Overview

The first major book on Riesener, one of the greatest French cabinet-makers of all time.

Jean-Henri Riesener (1734-1806) was one of the greatest French cabinet-makers of all time, supplying the court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette and furnishing royal and aristocratic houses. His pieces are of exquisite design and superb workmanship, using the most costly materials throughout and becoming a byword for all that is admired in French furniture worldwide.

This first major monograph on Riesener traces his career in pre-revolutionary France, highlighting his work as the most celebrated cabinet maker of the Louis XVI period and focusing on the enduring appeal of his furniture through the nineteenth century and beyond. Based on the extensive collections of the Wallace Collection, Waddesdon Manor and the Royal Collection it is fully illustrated with new photography and includes much new research making it essential not only to art historians and collectors, but also to decorative arts enthusiasts and lovers of fine furniture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781781300909
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	02/09/2021
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	9.42(w) x 11.31(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Helen Jacobsen is senior curator and curator of French eighteenth-century decorative arts at the Wallace Collection.

Rufus Bird is Surveyor of The Queen's Works of Art.

Mia Jackson is Curator of Decorative Arts at Waddesdon Manor.

Table of Contents

The Riesener, Oeben & Vandercruse families

THE CABINETMAKER

Jean-Henri Riesener: a portrait sketch

Christian Baulez

A German in Paris

Laura Langelüddecke

Jean-Henri Riesener and the business of furniture-making

Carolyn Sargentson

A question of language: the royal furniture administration's accounts

Lindsay Macnaughton

'Executed in the taste of painting': Riesener's marquetry designs

Mia Jackson

Jean-Henri Riesener: the portraits

Juliet Carey

THE COLLECTORS

From Versailles to Windsor Castle: George IV and Riesener

Rufus Bird

Alteration and appropriation: the 4th Marquess of Hertford and the taste for Riesener

Helen Jacobsen

Riesener and the Rothschilds at Waddesdon Manor

Ulrich Leben

Buying from Britain: the development of a new market

Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide

THE FURNITURE

Works in the Wallace Collection, the Royal Collection & Waddesdon Manor

THE MATERIALS & TECHNIQUES

Materials and techniques

Jürgen Huber

Visual glossary

Alexander Collins

Editorial Reviews

The first serious Riesener monograph.” —Alexandre Pradère, The Art Newspaper

“This authoritative tome is both an enjoyable read as well as a scholarly compilation of original research [...] it is extremely refreshing to be presented with such a clearly written and entirely unapologetic celebration of one of the creative geniuses of the French eighteenth century. This publication would do Watson, Bellaigue and Verlet proud. More, please.” —Wolf Burchard, The Furniture History Society

From the Publisher