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Secretaire
Piret, Jean - Enlarge image
Secretaire
- Place of origin:
Paris, France (made)
- Date:
ca. 1860-1876 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Piret, Jean (manufacturer)
- Materials and Techniques:
Thuya wood with gilt bronze mounts and marble top, the interior lined with satinwood
- Credit Line:
Bequeathed by John Jones
- Museum number:
1068:1, 2-1882
- Gallery location:
In Storage
This secretaire is closely modelled on furniture made by the Parisian cabinet-maker Adam Weisweiler in the 1780s. Weisweiler used a variety of interlaced, pierced shapes for the low stretchers of many of the stands of his pieces, and also figures or turned columns in gilt bronze on the front corners.
The back and underside of this piece, however, carry the stamp of the cabinet-maker Jean Piret, who is recorded working in Paris from 1865 to 1876. By that date, the furniture of the 1780s was highly popular with collectors, and Weisweiler's work was particularly esteemed. The workmanship of this piece is good enough to suggest that it might have been made as a fake, but it is unlikely that a faker would have put his name to a piece. The most likely explanation is that the secretaire was made as a high-quality reproduction.
