Chest of drawers in marquetry by C. Wolff for J. H. Riesener, Paris

Chest of drawers in marquetry by C. Wolff for J. H. Riesener, Paris around 1780.
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Important chest of drawers in marquetry of tinted and engraved precious woods, rosewood, amaranth, sycamore maple, holly and boxwood.
?It opens in front with four drawers, three of them without crossbars.
Rectangular in shape, with a slight protrusion at the front, it offers large cutaway uprights and smooth sides with a discreet rear offset. The three central drawers are framed by thick bronze moldings that encircle the cabinet.
On an amaranth background, the front presents a register of three rectangular Greek reserves, delimited by rosewood fillets and bronze rosettes arranged in spandrels. The lateral reserves decorated with trophies suspended by ribbons, display musical instruments (violin, flute, tambourine, score, hunting body ...) in wood finely engraved and stained on a background of holly wood colored in a tobacco shade.
The central reserve is centered on a medallion consisting of a garland of laurel. It represents a delicate bucolic scene, with two lovers in a landscape of ruins in the Antique style, decorated with cherubs, on a rare background of green and blue tinted sycamore.
?The top drawer features a boxwood frieze of acanthus scrolls on a tobacco background, which continues on the side panels.
The cut sides are adorned with marquetry fluting, and the sides feature Greek-style reserves centered on antique-style cassolettes in engraved and stained wood.
?Rich ornamentation of original bronzes, "sand melted" (fig. 1 and 2), finely chiseled and gilded with mercury, including entrances of locks, draw handles with laurel torus, angle brackets, a « cul-de-lampe » decorated with acanthus and important scrolled feet.
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 The left front foot bears the mark " Millet " (fig. 3) for Blaise Millet, " bronze fitter " in the middle of the XIXth century, who probably redid the guildind of the bronze.
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The original top is in white marble with purple veins (probably arabescato carrara) which perfectly follows the contour of the furniture.
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Bottom and interior of drawers in oak.
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Good condition, small wear and tear to the marquetry.
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The two straight uprights are stamped by J.H. Riesener* and C. Wolff** (fig. 4).
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Parisian work from the transition of the Louis the XVth to the Louis the XVIth periods, circa 1775-1780, made by Christophe Wolff under the direction of Jean-Henri Riesener.
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Dimensions :
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Width : 127 cm ; depth : 66 cm ; height : 90 cm.
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Our opinion :
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The important chest of drawers we present is a collective creation commissioned by the official supplier of the crown, Jean-Henri Riesener, and made by his subcontractor, Christophe Wolff, which explains the presence of their two adjacent stamps. 
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Our piece of furniture is directly inspired by the commode delivered by Riesener for the interior cabinet of Louis the XVIth in Versailles.
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This chest of drawers (fig. 4), accompanied by its two corner pieces (fig. 5), was one of the first pieces of furniture delivered for the young monarch after his return to Versailles in September 1774, just after the death of King Louis the XVth.  The new form of the set will be very successful and will mark an important shift towards the Louis the XVIth style. From then on, Jean-Henri Riesener's fame spread far beyond the borders of France, to the point that he delivered, in addition to the royal family, to many European courts. Not being able to carry out the totality of the orders himself, he will subcontract a good part of them, in particular to Charles Herman Richter for the mahogany pieces of furniture, and to his compatriots, like Wolff, for the more complex marquetries.
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The purpose of our chest of drawers is to imitate this royal piece of furniture, keeping the characteristics that made Riesener's success, especially the imposing "Greek" shape, inspired by ancient temples. The projection of our chest of drawers is less curved, indicating that it was produced a few years after the original model, in the years 1775-1780.
This shape, combined with a rich bronze ornamentation (including solid bronze feet that conceal the frame) and the finesse of the polychrome marquetry decoration, perfectly represents the "Riesener" style.
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The king's cabinetmaker probably supplied the bronzes and marble, but for the marquetry he called upon Christophe Wolff, who is considered one of the greatest specialists in floral marquetry. The latter is so trustworthy that Riesener's predecessor, Gilles Joubert, entrusted him with the realization of the secretary delivered for the Dauphin at the Château de Bellevue in 1759 (fig.6). If the whole marquetry of the piece of furniture is indeed by Wolff (similar decorations can be found on other pieces of furniture signed with his iron), one can really feel the spirit of the king's cabinetmaker in the layout of the different panels. Indeed, in accordance with the technique of the great master, Wolff will frame his scenes with dark amaranth wood and present the main scene in the middle, in a frame like a painting, in order to attract the attention of the viewer.
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The imitation will be pushed to its paroxysm with the acanthus scrolls that imitate the bronze frieze of the royal chest of drawers. If the patron of our piece is not known to us, he must have been a prominent personality to afford the services of the royal cabinetmaker, who was then at his peak. The absence of the "JME" hallmark indicates that this piece of furniture was "exempt" from all taxes.
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*Jean-Henri Riesener, born in Germany, arrived in Paris around 1755 and joined the workshop of Jean-François Oeben. At the death of the latter, he took over the workshop of his former master by marrying the widow of the latter, Francoise-Marguerite Vandercruse then Oeben, and this to the great despair of one of the other employees of the workshop, Jean-Francois Leleu. As long as Riesener did not have his own mastery, he used the stamp of J.-F. Oeben. One of his sons became a painter, Henri-François Riesener (1767-1828), pupil of David.
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Received as a master in 1768, he was appointed "ordinary cabinetmaker of the king" in 1774, and for ten years he provided the court and the royal family with sumptuous furniture in the neo-classical style. He is considered one of the best representatives of the transitional style and will complete the famous cylinder desk of Louis the XVth started by Oeben. Among his specificities, it is worth noting the use of gilded bronzes of great finesse ; he was one of the first to systematically conceal the fixings of the latter. With the help of Pierre-Elisabeth de Fontanieu, intendant of the Garde-Meuble, Riesener is the one who made the Louis the XVth style evolve towards the Louis the XVIth style. At the end of his career, Fontanieu reproached him his excessive prices.
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After the French Revolution, his popularity declined and he retired in 1800. During the revolutionary sales, he bought back part of his production at prices lower than those at which the Crown had bought them from him, but he was unable to resell them, since a large part of his clientele had disappeared, but also because taste had changed.
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