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France, Louis XVI period, 1787 - Delivered in 1787 for Thierry de Ville d\u2019Avray\u2019s salon in Versailles, for th the new H\u00f4tel du Garde- Meuble, 9\u201311, rue des R\u00e9servoirs, or for for his apartments in the Ch\u00e2teau de Versailles, in the former apartments of Madame du Barry With its restrained and elegant design, this pair of corner cupboards stands as a privileged witness to the final years of the Ancien R\u00e9gime. Made by the Crown\u2019s cabinetmaker for the Intendent of the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, it reflects the organization of this institution, which was responsible for furnishing the royal residences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BENNEMAN, LAST CABINETMAKER TO KING LOUIS XVI<\/strong> Fig. 1 \u2014 <\/strong>Guillaume (Jean) Benneman\u2019s stamp, detail of one of the corners of our pair<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Around the same period, he was chosen by the new Intendent of the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, Marc-Antoine Thierry de Ville d\u2019Avray (1732\u20131792), to replace the celebrated cabinetmaker Jean-Henri Riesener (1734\u20131806). Benneman headed a large workshop with ten workbenches and fulfilled numerous commissions from the royal administration. Based at 6 rue du Forez, north of the Marais, he repaired old furniture, completed existing ensembles already in the royal collections, and delivered new pieces. The creation of some of the finest furniture of the late Ancien R\u00e9gime was thus entrusted to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Benneman\u2019s production is characterized by elegant yet powerful lines. It includes furniture made in series from recurring models\u2014often simply veneered in mahogany or native woods\u2014as well as exceptional commissions. Moving from the sober, balanced Louis XVI style to the more ornate Consulate taste, Benneman skillfully adapted to the aesthetic evolution of the final decades of the eighteenth century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fig. 2 \u2014 <\/strong>Guillaume (Jean) Benneman, Chest of drawers made in 1787 for C\u00e9cile Marguerite Thierry de Ville d\u2019Avray, wife of Marc Antoine Thierry de Ville d\u2019Avray, intendant of the Garde-Meuble<\/em>, 1787, Paris, Louvre Museum (inv. OA 5504) Stamped by the cabinetmaker, this pair of corner cabinets exemplifies the noble Louis XVI style favored by Benneman in the late 1780s. Delivered for Thierry de Ville d\u2019Avray at Versailles, they can be compared to two chests of drawers commissioned by the intendent in 1787 for his wife\u2019s apartment at the H\u00f4tel du Garde-Meuble. Both of those chests of drawers are still known today: one is preserved in the Mus\u00e9e du Louvre (Fig. 2), and the other has returned to the H\u00f4tel de la Marine (Fig. 3). The chests of drawers and corner cupboards share the same fine flamed mahogany veneer, the same frieze of fluting and gilt-bronze floral garlands, and the same framed fa\u00e7ades. Their simple, straight lines and discreet antique ornamentation embody a perfectly measured neoclassicism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fig. 3 -<\/strong> Guillaume (Jean) Benneman, Chest of drawers made in 1787 for C\u00e9cile Marguerite Thierry de Ville d\u2019Avray, wife of Marc Antoine Thierry de Ville d\u2019Avray, intendant of the Garde-Meuble<\/em>, 1787, Paris, H\u00f4tel de la Marine (inv. HDM2022800363) THE GARDE-MEUBLE DE LA COURONNE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Corner cupboards for the Intendant of the Garde-Meuble<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Benneman integrated into this new organization and worked under Haur\u00e9\u2019s supervision on cabinetmaking commissions. The latter recorded the delivery of our pair of corner cupboards for Ville d\u2019Avray at Versailles in 1787. A memorandum from the Garde-Meuble, dated September 21 and written in Haur\u00e9\u2019s hand (1), reads as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor the Service of the Controller General<\/em> The mark with two crowned Gs<\/strong> Fig. 4 -<\/strong> Ink mark with two crowned Gs, detail of one of the corners cupboards of our pair<\/p>\n\n\n\n Already in use under Louis XV, this stamp appears on numerous pieces delivered between the late 1780s and 1792. It provides precious evidence of our corner cabinets\u2019 passage through the collections of the Garde-Meuble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Haur\u00e9\u2019s administration came to an end in June 1789. Benneman then dealt directly with the Garde-Meuble\u2014something he had occasionally done before. Despite the upheavals of the French Revolution, he continued to receive a few commissions from the royal administration, which maintained its functions. One of his most important projects was the Palais des Tuileries, where the king and royal family took up residence in October 1789.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Royal Faamily at the Tuileries<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n On the morning of October 6, 1789, an urgent message arrived at the Palais des Tuileries, ordering its occupants to vacate the premises for the arrival of the royal family that very day. Escorted by the Parisian crowd from Versailles, King Louis XVI, Queen Marie-Antoinette, the Dauphin, Madame Royale, and the king\u2019s sister Madame \u00c9lisabeth were compelled to settle in Paris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Tuileries Palace, which was to receive them, was in a deplorable state. The king had not visited it since 1744, and the apartments had been occupied by various pensioners and courtiers who had partitioned rooms, added mezzanines, and pierced chimneys without regard for the royal building. When the royal family arrived, chaos reigned: the apartments were under repair, and only a few dilapidated pieces of furniture remained. Only the queen\u2019s own apartment\u2014arranged in 1784 on the mezzanine of the first floor as a pied-\u00e0-terre for her evenings at the opera\u2014was in good condition. Fig. 5 \u2014 <\/strong>Jean-Henri Riesener, Chest of drawers from the Queen\u2019s Salon des Nobles at Versailles, delivered for the King\u2019s bedroom at the Tuileries in 1790, Louis XVI period, Paris, Louvre Museum (inv. OA 5229), currently on loan to the Palace of Versailles<\/em> After the failed flight to Varennes in June 1791, the royal family settled permanently at the Tuileries and undertook major redecoration work. It was in this context that our pair of corner cabinets was reworked by Benneman before being placed in the king\u2019s apartment. A memorandum from the cabinetmaker dated October 1791 records:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRe-veneered two large corner cabinets in mahogany, decorated with fluted pilasters and rosettes in the panels, upper and lower moldings, panels framed with plain and double beaded borders, false and English-style lock escutcheons, newly made feet similar to those of the commodes, with gilt-bronze mounts, sabots, and carved ornaments. Both fitted with blue turquin marble tops. Fixed price for both cabinets: 800 livres.<\/em> Fig. 6 -<\/strong> Guillaume (Jean) Benneman, Pair of corner cupboards<\/em>, detail, 1787, Galerie L\u00e9age<\/p>\n\n\n\n Restored and fitted with new blue turquin marble tops\u2014which they still retain today\u2014these corner cabinets then took their place in the final residence of King Louis XVI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n R\u00e9f\u00e9rences<\/strong> Bibliographie<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With its restrained and elegant design, this pair of corner cupboards stands as a privileged witness to the final years of the Ancien R\u00e9gime. Made by the Crown\u2019s cabinetmaker for the Intendent of the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, it reflects the organization of this institution, which was responsible for furnishing the royal residences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5179,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","inline_featured_image":false,"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5181","newsletter","type-newsletter","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"url_news1":{"simple_value_formatted":"","value_formatted":"","value":"","field":{"ID":438,"key":"field_64c00914a1189","label":"URL","name":"url_news1","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"url","value":null,"menu_order":0,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":437,"wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"only_front":0,"frontend_admin_display_mode":"edit","no_values_message":"","wp-typography":"none","default_value":"","placeholder":"","wpml_cf_preferences":1,"_name":"url_news1","_valid":1}}},"mcc_id":null,"mcc_type":null,"mcc_status":null,"mcc_create_time":null,"mcc_send_time":null,"mcc_emails_sent":null,"mcc_delivery_status":null,"mcc_content_type":null,"mcc_archive_url":null,"mcc_long_archive_url":null,"mcc_plain_text":null,"mcc_content_html":null,"mcc_recipients":null,"mcc_list_id":null,"mcc_list_name":null,"mcc_segment_text":null,"mcc_recipient_count":null,"mcc_settings":null,"mcc_tracking":null,"mcc_social_card":null,"mcc_report_summary":null,"mcc___links":null,"mcc__edit_lock":null,"mcc__edit_last":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter\/5181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/newsletter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5181"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter\/5181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5949,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter\/5181\/revisions\/5949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Stamped G. BENEMAN <\/em>on one
Guillaume (Jean) Benneman (1750\u22121811)<\/strong>
Ink marks of the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne: two interlaced and crowned G
Mahogany veneer, chased and gilt bronze
Turquin blue marble top
Provenance:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Delivered in October 1791 by Benneman after restoration and enrichment for the royal palace of the Tuileries to furnish the apartment of King Louis XVI<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Side length: 32 1\u20444 inches \u2014 82 cm
Front width: 45 1\u20444 inches \u2014 115 cm
Height: 39 inches \u2014 99,5 cm<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A German cabinetmaker born in 1748 in Westphalia, Jean Benneman (1748 \u2013 after 1804) settled in Paris in 1773, between the Louvre and the Palais-Royal. He was exceptionally received as a Master cabinetmaker in 1785 by order of the Controller General of Finances, Charles-Alexandre de Calonne. At that time, he was registered under the first name \u201cGuillaume,\u201d which he kept thereafter and which appears in his stamp, G.BENNEMAN <\/em>(Fig. 1).<\/p>\n\n\n\n![](\"https:\/\/mcusercontent.com\/62ce76c4b4cbc15fea5ad03c6\/images\/4057b6da-453d-2fd2-adba-bb24a1f23d51.jpeg\")
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\u00a9 2012 Mus\u00e9e du Louvre, Dist. GrandPalaisRmn \/ Thierry Ollivier<\/p>\n\n\n\n![](\"https:\/\/mcusercontent.com\/62ce76c4b4cbc15fea5ad03c6\/images\/e14a6fc1-dd7f-fbfe-8b9f-fd28f84f979a.png\")
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\u00a9 Benjamin Gavaudo \/ Centre des monuments nationaux<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Appointed head of th Garde-Meuble in 1784, Marc-Antoine Thierry de Ville d\u2019Avray undertook a major reform of the institution. It resulted in a significant rationalization of costs and a reorganization of the procurement process. The intendent established a particularly innovative workshop system, the r\u00e9gie<\/em>, directed by the sculptor Jean Haur\u00e9 (1739 \u2013 after 1796), who coordinated the creation and restoration of all royal furniture from 1784 to 1789. Ville d\u2019Avray thus achieved the remarkable feat of renewing the furnishings of the royal residences in just five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the Salon: two corner cabinets in armoire form, 15 inches deep, decorated with a frieze of fluting and consoles, plain moldings, heart-and-dart moldings, and white marble tops.<\/em>
Benneman \u2013 Cabinetmaking \u2026 116 l. 15 s.<\/em>
Michel \u2013 Locksmithing \u202617 l. 8 s.<\/em>
Ravrio & Bardin \u2013 Casting \u2026 58 l. 14 s.<\/em>
Cantelou \u2013 Fire-gilding .\u202682 l. 17 s.<\/em>
Lanfant \u2013 Two white marble tops measuring together 4 feet .\u2026 24 l.<\/em>
Master Benneman \u2013 Labor and incidentals .\u2026 72 l.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The corner cupboards were then placed in Thierry de Ville d\u2019Avray\u2019s apartment at the H\u00f4tel du Garde-Meuble in Versailles on rue des R\u00e9servoirs\u2014or possibly in his quarters within the Ch\u00e2teau of Versailles itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We find on this pair of corner cupboards the stamp of the two crowned Gs (Fig. 4). Long enigmatic, this mark was recently studied by Renaud Serrette and is now believed to correspond to that of the Royal Garde-Meuble. Usually applied with a branding iron, and occasionally with a brush as in this case, the mark distinguished furniture delivered directly to the Garde-Meuble by artisans, as well as pieces being transferred between royal residences or held in long-term storage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![](\"https:\/\/mcusercontent.com\/62ce76c4b4cbc15fea5ad03c6\/_compresseds\/a7828781-2719-662e-92a1-1151f89994ee.jpeg\")
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The immediate concern was to furnish the palace. Beginning on October 8, the Garde-Meuble sent furniture, fabrics, and tapestries without interruption. Furniture from other royal residences was recovered: the gilded wood suite from the king\u2019s bedchamber at Choisy was brought to Paris for his grand apartment. The three famous chests of drawers by Riesener, made for the queen\u2019s Salon des Nobles at Versailles (Fig. 5), were transferred to the Tuileries in January 1790 and installed in the king\u2019s grand bedchamber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![](\"https:\/\/mcusercontent.com\/62ce76c4b4cbc15fea5ad03c6\/images\/7f8c436e-16df-8c94-cff0-5eeb62e86f97.jpg\")
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\u00a9 GrandPalaisRmn (mus\u00e9e du Louvre) \/ RMN Agence photo<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the Service of the King\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![](\"https:\/\/mcusercontent.com\/62ce76c4b4cbc15fea5ad03c6\/images\/96b23160-b776-687a-ea64-6e9652e6372b.png\")
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1. Archives Nationales (Marais), \u00ab Comptes, m\u00e9moires, relev\u00e9s, factures de toutes sortes, des fournisseurs et des ouvriers du Garde-Meuble \u00bb, Maison du Roi (O1 3645)
2. Archives nationales, Archives nationales (Marais), \u00ab Comptes, m\u00e9moires, relev\u00e9s, factures de toutes sortes, des fournisseurs et des ouvriers du Garde-Meuble \u00bb, Maison du Roi (O1 655)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jean Pichelin, \u201cBenneman. L\u2019ultime \u00e9b\u00e9niste de Louis XVI\u201d in<\/em> L\u2019Objet d\u2019Art n\u00b0 614, septembre 2024, p.64\u201369
Ouvrage collectif, La famille royale \u00e0 Paris : de l\u2019histoire \u00e0 la l\u00e9gende<\/em>, Paris Mus\u00e9e, 1993
Jean Charles (dir.), De Versailles \u00e0 Paris. Le destin des collections royales<\/em>, Centre culturel du Panth\u00e9on, 1994<\/p>\n\n\n\n