During the reign of Louis XVI (1774-1792), many French intellectuals called for a moral austerity and social dignity that they associated with ancient Greece and republican Rome. Neoclassicism, adapting ideals from classical civilizations, replaced the pastel frivolity of the earlier rococo mode with a clear-cut sobriety. Eighteenth-century excavations at the ruined cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, buried by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79, provided archeological artifacts to inspire this new classicizing style.

Flat surfaces and straight edges reflect the architectural sources for Louis XVI design. Elements of ancient Roman moldings, friezes, and columns became important motifs. Neoclassical furniture employed geometrical forms—squares, circles, and triangles—for decorative patterns as well as overall silhouettes. Tastes had changed gradually from the time of Louis XV to that of his grandson Louis XVI. Therefore, the furniture of the 1760s and 1770s is sometimes called transitional because it incorporates both graceful rococo curves and the geometrical severity of the later neoclassical mode.

Mechanical table (Table mécanique)

Jean Henri Riesener
(French, Gladebeck, near Hessen 1734–1806 Paris)

Maker: mechanism by Jean-Gotfritt Mercklein (1733–1808)

Date: 1778

Culture: French, Paris

Medium: Oak veneered with marquetry of bois satiné, holly, amaranth, barberry, stained sycamore, and green-lacquered wood; gilt-bronze mounts; steel, iron and brass fittings; mirror glass; velvet (not original)

Dimensions: H. 31 x W. 44-1/2 x D. 27 1/4 in. (78.7 x 113.0 x 69.2 cm)

The number 2964 painted underneath the top of this table corresponds to an entry in the Journal du Garde-Meuble de la Couronne (a ledger listing new furniture for the royal residences) and identifies this multipurpose table as one of the first pieces ordered by Marie-Antoinette from her favorite cabinetmaker, Jean-Henri Riesener. A native of Westphalia, Riesener had a successful career in Paris and made many sumptuous pieces for the queen. This table was delivered to Versailles on December 12, 1778, exactly a week before the long-awaited birth of her first child, Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte. To alleviate Marie-Antoinette’s discomfort during the advanced state of her pregnancy, this table was fitted by Mercklein, a mécanicien in her service, with a special mechanism. Hidden behind a finely decorated gilt-bronze plaque at either end, this mechanism allowed the queen to use the table in either a seated or a standing position. By means of a detachable crank at one side, the top can be raised or lowered on ratcheted metal shafts that move up or down in the hollow legs. The table could be used for various activities such as eating and writing and also reading and dressing, since the central panel of the top can be lifted to form a lectern and reversed to reveal a mirror. Pressing buttons along the front edge of the table releases the hinged lids to six compartments for the storage of cosmetic and writing equipment. The intricate marquetry decoration of the top has lost some of its subtle coloring over time. Framed alternately with natural (originally white) holly and black-stained holly, the bois satiné and amaranth trelliswork encloses rosettes cut of an originally bright yellow barberry wood against a stained, soft yellow sycamore ground.

Vocabulary

Grainy : veiné

Sapwood : aubier

Venner : placage

Stained : teinté

Barberry : épine-vinette

Sycamore : sycomore, genre d’érable

Holly : houx

Gilt bronze : bronze doré

Hinged lids : couvercle à charnière, abattant

Ratcheted metal shaft : crémaillère

Marble, wavey : moiré