Jean-Henri Riesener: Cabinetmaker to Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette [9781781300909]

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.