A fine and rare Louis XVI ormolu-mounted mahogany and ebony mechanical writing table circa 1785, stamped A. Weisweiler

the superstructure with a rectangular brocatelle d'Espagne marble top and pierced three-quarter ormolu gallery above an arrangement of eleven drawers and a leather-inset writing surface, the whole rising on four steel supports to reveal the cross-banded top of the lower part, the frieze and corners outlined with ebonized borders, raised on tapered fluted legs fitted with ormolu collars and sabots.

Collection of Georges Geoffroy, Paris

With Aveline, Paris

Acquired from the above, September 1996

P. Lemonnier, Weisweiler, 1983, Paris, illustrated p. 89

Hachette, French Art of the 18th Century, 1957, p. 56, fig. A.

P. Verlet, Les Ebénistes du XVIII Siècle Français, Paris, 1963, p. 289.

Georges Geoffroy was a Parisian interior decorator who had a celebrated collection of furniture and works of art.  This collection had been formed by his father and it included the automaton and musical clock which was given by the City of Paris to Queen Marie-Antoinette.  This remarkable instrument was presented to the Château de Versailles by Georges Geoffroy's heirs.

This unusual piece of furniture which bears the hallmarks of Weisweiler's production in terms of an extraordinarily high degree of craftsmanship; carefully chosen, well-figured timbers and veneers and restrained ormolu mounts, may well have been a special commission since there does not appear to be any evidence that Weisweiler repeated the design.  Weisweiler did produce other types of furniture with moving parts, such as the highly desirable tables à thé with their circular tiers which rise and fall when released by their respective mechanisms.  

Virtually all of Weisweiler's production was sold by marchands merciers, notably by Daguerre, and by his fellow ébénistes including Riesener and Benneman.  Rather surprisingly, current literature seems to indicate that he made relatively few writing or actual work tables, again suggesting that the present lot may well have been specially commissioned by someone such as Daguerre for one of his important clients.