a fine gilt-bronze mounted ebony and mahogany table vitrine in the manner of adam weisweiler paris, circa 1880

ebony and mahogany, cream fabric lined interior with the bottom removable by a silk pull out, black stenciled number to the underside 2708, the basket at the stretcher has been removed to reveal an indistinct script incription in blue chalk.

Althought no marks could have been found on this piece, except as stated in the catalogue description an indistinct inscription in blue chalk and the number 2708, the present display table is irrefutably the product of one of the leading parisian cabinet maker of the last quarter of the 19th century. An assumption based on the hight quality of the casting, chasing and mounting of the bronze as well as of the cabinetry itself.

The model is closely related a dressing table by Adam Weisweiler (1744-1820) supplied by him to the marchand-mercier Daguerre in 1784 for Marie-Antoinette's cabinet intérieur at the Château de Saint-Cloud. This table was copied by various 19^th century makers faithfully reproducing the finesse of the gilt-bronzes. Empress Eugénie in 1865 acquired the original table from the Prince de Beauvau (d. 1864) and placed it in the salon bleu in the Tuileries where she gave audiences. The table is now in the Musée du Louvre and illustrated by D. Alcouffe, op. cit., p. 289, no. 97. The mounts on the original table were chased and gilded by the doreur François Rémond.