A Louis XVI Gilt-Bronze Mounted Mahogany, Plum Pudding Mahogany and Inlaid Table à écrire by Jean-Henri Riesener, Circa 1785

Possibly Mr and Mrs Meyer and Mozelle (née Gubbay) Sassoon, Pope's Manor, Berkshire, and by descent to their daughter Violet Leah, who in 1917 married Derek Barrington Fitzgerald of the Irish Guards;

Property of Mrs Derek Fitzgerald, Heathfield Park, Sussex, sold Sotheby's London, 22 November 1963, lot 135;

Jack and Belle Linsky Collection, New York;

Sotheby's New York, 21 May 1988, lot 142.

In the 1780s the royal cabinetmaker Jean-Henri Riesener's style evolved, relying less on intricate marquetry and inlaid designs and highly sculptural gilt bronze mounts and more on plain mahogany veneers with simpler mounts for its decorative effect. This was partially a reaction to a general shift in taste in the final year of Louis XVI's reign towards a more restrained aesthetic in furniture design influenced by English taste, and also a reflection of Riesener's efforts to broaden his clientele after Thierry Ville d'Avray became the new director of the agency responsible for furnishing the royal palaces, the Garde-Meuble, in 1784 and promptly ended Riesener's tenure as principal supplier to the Crown out of measures of economy, turning to other cabinetmakers such as Guillaume Benemann and Jean-Ferdinand Schwerdfeger.

Small writing tables had long been an important element of Riesener's output, and several tables of comparable or slightly larger scale with more elaborate decoration and fixtures were provided to the Garde-Meuble in the early 1780s, including examples made for Madame de Polignac at the Trianon in 1782 [Versailles, Petit Trianon V 5905]; for the king's sister Madame Elisabeth at Versailles in 1783 [Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1939-41-9] and for Marie-Antoinette's use at Versailles in 1781 [Paris, Louvre OA 5233], at Marly in 1783 [Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1939-41-8] and the Tuileries in 1784 [Washington, National Gallery of Art, 1942.9.407 and Royal Collection, RCIN 21209]. A similar table à écrire with plain mahogany veneer supplied by Riesener for Louis XVI's use at the Petit Trianon in 1777 was sold Christie's London, 7 July 2011, lot 45 and acquired by Versailles for the Petit Trianon [V.2011.35], and further comparable tables by or attributed to Riesener that have appeared at auction recently include Christie's Paris, 29 November 2017, lot 182; Christie's London 13 November 2019, lot 17; and Artcurial Paris, 16June 2022, lot 5.

The present table formed part of the interiors of Mrs Derek Fitzgerald (née Violet Sassoon) at Heathfield Park, East Sussex, an originally Carolean house with a park designed by Humphrey Repton later remodelled in a Georgian Revival style by Sir Reginald Blomfield in 1895. The Fitzgeralds assembled an important collection of English furniture that was sold at Sotheby's London in 1963, but Heathfield also housed an important group of 18th-century French fine and decorative arts also sold across several 1963 auctions that had come from Violet Sassoon's parents Meyer and Mozelle Sassoon at their residences in Hamilton Place, London and Pope's Manor near Bracknell, Berkshire, among them the celebrated female portrait by Nicolas de Largillière known as La Belle Strasbourgeoise now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts Strasbourg. It seems probable the Riesener table emanated from this collection, the furniture of which was sourced from preeminent London and Paris dealers such as Jacques Seligmann. In the later 20th century the table was acquired by the New York entrepreneurs and philanthropists Jack and Belle Linsky, who in 1982 donated a large proportion of their important collection of European works of art and French furniture to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where it is exhibited in purpose-built galleries. A small part of the collection including this table was retained by Mrs Linsky for personal use until her death in 1987, when it was inherited by her daughter and then sold.