RIESENER, JEAN HENRI French cabinet maker of the Louis XVI. period, was born at Gladbach near Co logne on July 4, and died in Paris on Jan. 6, 18o6. At an early age he went to Paris, where he entered the workshop in the Arsenal of Jean Francois Oeben (q.v.). When his master died, Riesener became foreman of the works; two years later he mar ried Mme. Oeben. By 1782 he had accumulated a fortune of about £40,000 and had received the title, formerly Oebens's, of "Ebeniste du Roi." Riesener was unquestionably the greatest of the Louis Seize cabinet-makers. His work is generally bold and graceful. His marquetry presents an extraordinary finish; his chiselled bronzes are of the first excellence. He was especially distinguished for his cabinets, in which he employed many Euro pean as well as exotic woods. Wreaths and bunches of flowers form the centres of the panels ; on the sides are often diaper pat terns in quiet colours. His high-water mark was reached in the Bureau du Roi, conceived by Oeben, finished in 1769 and conse quently belonging rather to the Louis Quinze than the Louis Seize period, and a similar cylinder bureau believed to have been made for Stanislas Leszczynski, king of Poland, now in the Wallace Collection. At Buckingham Palace there is a third bureau on the
same lines. These pieces are triumphs of marquetry. For long Riesener followed Oeben, but there was a gradual transition to a style more individual, more delicately conceived, with finer but hardly less vigorous lines. By the time he had been working alone for ten years he had completely embraced the Louis Seize manner —he had, perhaps, some responsibility for it. One of the most distinguished of his achievements for the court was the famous flat writing-table now at the Petit Trianon. Some of his creations are vitiated by being mounted with panels of Sevres, Wedgwood and other china. Such is the beautiful little secretaire in the Jones collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
See F. de Salverte, Les Ebenistes du XVIII. Siecle (Paris, 1927).