Bibliotheque du Roi - Medailler de Louis XVI

*Note* If you like this object please consider buying it in the Louvre museum, thank you.

This astonishing piece of furniture (partly due to its technique) was made by Guillaume Benneman in circa 1785. It was acquired on a personal basis by Louis XVI shortly before the Revolution. Executed in mahogany wood and gilded bronze, it presents a surprising decoration composed of wax panels on which are applied plants, bird feathers, and butterfly wings, which makes it a real rarity, worthy of a cabinet of curiosity.

Collecting medals was very fashionable, and every French King since Louis XIV have collected them, especially the ancient ones. In 1684, Louis XIV had a Cabinet of Medals installed in his interior apartments at Versailles, which contained his famous collection of ancient coins and medals in a chest of drawers. This cabinet, which no longer exists, was situated in King Louis XVI's Games Salon, near the Abundance Salon.

Guillaume Benneman (1750 - 1811) was a prominent Parisian ébéniste, one of several of German extraction. Beneman arrived in Paris already trained, he was settled in the rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine when he was received master in 1785 by royal command. He rapidly became the last of the royal cabinet-makers before the French Revolution, working under the direction (and on occasion to the designs) of the sculptor-entrepreneur Jean Hauré, fournisseur de la cour ("supplier to the Court").
In the service of the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, he delivered works of irreproachable refinement to the royal residences into the first years of the Revolution.

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