The rectangular top with pierced three-quarter gallery above one long frieze drawer inset with three panels with moulded borders above a drop-front inlaid with ebony stringing and centred by a parquetry lozenge opening to reveal on the reverse a gilt-tooled blue leather writing surface and a fitted interior with four drawers and open shelves, flanked by turned and fluted columnar uprights, the sides conformingly decorated, the lower section with a long drawer on four turned fluted legs joined by a pierced stretcher on tapering feet with simulated fluting terminating in sabots
49 in. (124.5 cm.) high; 27¹⁄₂ in. (70 cm.) wide; 14 in. (35.5 cm.) deep

Acquired from Galerie Segoura, Paris, in the 1960s.

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Lot Essay

This sophisticated and elegant secretaire is exemplary of the oeuvre of Adam Weisweiler in the late 18th century and in its material and decoration reflects the fashionable 'Anglomania' prevalent in Paris and the French court at this time.

The form and ornament of this secretaire relates to a number of secretaires by Weisweiler in a number of different materials. The beautifully interlaced stretcher is typical of Weisweiler's oeuvre and relates to a lacquer secretaire with similar stretcher and interior arrangement sold Christie's, New York, 1 February 2024, lot 13. This secretaire is also closely related to a lacquer secretaire by Weisweiler and supplied by Dominique Daguerre in the collection of the Earls Spencer at Althorp, Northamptonshire which is very similar in its form, drawer, legs, shape of the uprights and heart-pierced gallery. The citronnier and amaranth veneers and square-shaped handles to the present lot also relate very closely to a secretaire stamped Weisweiler sold Sotheby's, New York, 20 April 2015, lot 215.

WEISWEILER AND DAGUERRE
Born in Neuwied, Weisweiler is believed to have studied with David Roentgen (1743-1807) before emigrating to Paris, where he was established as an artisan libre – a foreign worker protected by the medieval right of refuge – by 1777, the year of his marriage. The following year he became a maître-ébéniste, and established his workshop on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine, joining Riesener and the elite group of German artisans providing pieces for the French royal family. While he is recorded to have worked with the marchand-mercier Julliot, the luxury pieces for which he is best known were almost exclusively sold directly through the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre. He provided the designs for many of Weisweiler’s most important commissions and together they supplied the most influential and esteemed patrons of their day: Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, George, Prince of Wales (later King George IV), the Earl Spencer, and Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna and Grand Duke Paul of Russia.