A late Louis XV cabinet signed F.REIZELL

White oak veneered with Rosewood, gilt bronze mounts, locks and keys, bleu turquin marble top
Paris by 1770
François Reizell (†1785), master on February 21 1764

A late Louis XV meuble d’appui by François Reizell veneered in rosewood. It opens by a central fall-front revealing a secrétaire fitted with a brown leather writing surface and six small drawers arranged on either side of a central compartment. The lower section, enclosed by two doors, contains a series of oak drawers of varying sizes. On each side of the cabinet, two vertical rows of four compartments are closed by tambour shutters.

Of a type rarely encountered in French furniture of the 18th century, this multifunctional piece—serving as a secrétaire, serre papiers, or as a collector’s cabinet—clearly belongs to the category of commissioned furniture. It was executed by François Reizell in accordance with the precise specifications of a particularly demanding patron.

François Reizell, a Parisian cabinetmaker of German origin, was received as a master in 1764. After beginning his career on the rue Traversière in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, he established himself around 1770 on the rue des Saints-Pères. At the time this piece was made, his principal client was the Prince de Condé, for whom he worked from 1767 for several years, supplying numerous commissions for the furnishing of the Palais Bourbon as well as the châteaux of Chantilly and Villegénis, amounting in total to approximately 12,000 livres.

This piece is distinguished by the exceptionally high quality of its execution, characteristic of Reizell’s work. It is structured by large expanses of rosewood veneer arranged in butterfly-wing patterns at the center and on the sides; the rounded uprights with chamfered facets, as well as the tambour shutters, are veneered in straight-grained wood. The absence of any inventory marks does not allow a definitive attribution to the service of the Prince de Condé; nevertheless, it is likely that this cabinet was intended for the storage and organization of the papers of a major landowner.