A Louis XVI style gilt-bronze mounted ebony and lacquered table, by Henry Dasson after a model by Adam Weisweiler, Paris, 1880s | Tisch im Stile Louis XVI aus Ebenholz, Lack und mit vergoldeten Bronzefassungen, von Henry Dasson nach einem Modell von Adam Weisweiler, Paris, 1880er

This exceptional table de dame is a reproduction of the celebrated model by Adam Weisweiler (1744-1820), delivered in 1784 by the famous Parisian marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre to the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne. It was placed in Marie Antoinette's cabinet intérieur at Château de Saint-Cloud and was subsequently gifted to her close friend, Madame de Polignac. Having been sold after the Revolution, the Weisweiler table was discovered in a marchand's shop on the Quai Voltaire in 1840 by the Prince de Beauvau (d. 1864). Purchased by the Empress Eugénie at auction the year after his death, it was placed in her salon bleu at the Tuileries, where she gave her audiences. As her purchase demonstrates, Eugénie was an avid collector of Louis XVI decorations, particularly those formerly owned by Marie Antoinette.

Again influencing fashion as she had a century earlier, Marie Antoinette was again à la mode during the last quarter of the 19th century. Her table was manufactured by a number of preeminent Parisian ébénistes who specialized in meubles de style, including Henry Dasson's contemporaries, Alfred Beurdeley, François Linke, and Paul Sormani.