{"id":6316,"date":"2026-07-16T09:53:46","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T07:53:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/?post_type=newsletter&p=6316"},"modified":"2026-07-16T09:53:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T07:53:47","slug":"jean-ferdinand-joseph-schwerdfeger1734-1818","status":"publish","type":"newsletter","link":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/newsletter\/jean-ferdinand-joseph-schwerdfeger1734-1818\/","title":{"rendered":"JEAN-FERDINAND-JOSEPH SCHWERDFEGER(1734\u20131818)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Jean-Ferdinand-Joseph Schwerdfeger, Fall-front secretary<\/em>, detail of the signature, Directoire-Consulat period, 1795\u20131803, Galerie L\u00e9age<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Still largely overlooked today, Jean-Ferdinand-Joseph Schwerdfeger was the author of one of the most sumptuous pieces of furniture ever delivered for Marie-Antoinette. Active from the end of the eighteenth century into the beginning of the next, he produced cabinetwork poised at the turning point between the Ancien R\u00e9gime and the Empire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jean-Ferdinand Schwerdfeger (attributed to), Fall-front secretary, probably delivered for Marie-Antoinette\u2019s bedroom at the Petit Trianon<\/em>, circa 1788, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts (inv. 1979.484)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Jean-Ferdinand-Joseph Schwerdfeger (1734\u20131818) was one of the many German cabinetmakers established in Paris. Born in Steinbr\u00fcck, in Lower Saxony, in 1734, he reached the French capital at barely eighteen years of age and settled in the faubourg Saint-Antoine. Like his fellow Germans, he was able to practice his trade there as a free craftsman, exempt from the constraints of the Parisian jurande<\/em>. Schwerdfeger worked there for many years, moving in the same circles as Jean-Chrysostome Stumpff (1731\u20131806) and probably Jean-Henri Riesener (1734\u20131806). The cabinetmaker lived through the upheavals of the Revolution in the company of the sans-culottes<\/em>. Engaged as an intelligence agent, he was ultimately troubled by the authorities himself and imprisoned at the Conciergerie for a brief period. After the Terror, he returned to his workbenches and appears to have enjoyed a certain prosperity, as shown by the inventory drawn up after the death of his wife in 1803.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jean-Ferdinand-Joseph Schwerdfeger (cabinetmaking), Jean-D\u00e9mosth\u00e8ne Dugourc (after), Louis-Simon Boizot (bronze works after), \u00c9tienne Martincourt (bronze works cast by), Pierre-Philippe Thomire (bronze works chased by), Jean-Jacques Lagren\u00e9e (painting under glass), Queen Marie-Antoinette\u2019s serre-bijoux<\/em>, 1787, Versailles, Ch\u00e2teaux de Versailles et de Trianon (inv. OA 5515)

\u00a9 Ch\u00e2teau de Versailles, Dist. RMN \/ \u00a9 Christophe Fouin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 1787, a year after receiving his ma\u00eetrise<\/em> as a cabinetmaker, Jean-Ferdinand-Joseph Schwerdfeger entered the prestigious circle of craftsmen serving Queen Marie-Antoinette. The queen wished for a new jewel coffer in which to keep her personal jewels in the alcove of her bedchamber at the ch\u00e2teau de Versailles. She entrusted this commission to her garde des meubles<\/em>, Pierre-Charles Bonnefoy du Plan (1732\u20131824), who was charged with choosing the craftsmen called upon to carry it out: the sculptor Louis-Simon Boizot (1743\u20131809), director of the sculpture workshop at the S\u00e8vres manufactory; the bronze makers \u00c9tienne Martincourt and Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751\u20131843); and our cabinetmaker. Of extraordinary richness, this magnificent piece, veneered in mahogany, was adorned with inlays of mother-of-pearl, porcelain plaques, gouaches, and gilt bronzes in the Etruscan taste. The following year, Schwerdfeger delivered a suite of furniture \u2014 table, console, chest of drawers, and secretary \u2014 for the queen\u2019s bedchamber at the Petit Trianon. Particularly original, its gilt bronzes featured dogs\u2019 heads and a caning trellis reflecting the queen\u2019s rustic and naturalistic tastes.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jean-Ferdinand-Joseph Schwerdfeger (cabinetmaking), Joseph-No\u00ebl Turpin (bronzemaker), Jean-Baptiste-Godegrand Mellet (gilding), Jean-D\u00e9mosth\u00e8ne Dugourc (after), Console delivered to Marie-Antoinette\u2019s bedroom at the Petit Trianon<\/em>, 1788, Versailles, Ch\u00e2teaux de Versailles et de Trianon (inv. V 5106)

\u00a9 Ch\u00e2teau de Versailles, Dist. RMN \/ \u00a9 Christophe Fouin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Apart from these deliveries for Marie-Antoinette, few pieces by Schwerdfeger are known. The cabinetmaker appears to have specialized in clock cases, particularly from the revolutionary period onward. He contributed to the making of the geographical clock<\/em> that Antide Janvier (1751\u20131835), clockmaker to the king, presented to Louis XVI in 1791. He also produced the case for the same clockmaker\u2019s astronomical masterpiece<\/em> and supplied him with a great many mahogany cases. Renowned for the quality of his clock cases, Schwerdfeger worked with other leading clockmakers, such as Bailly l\u2019A\u00een\u00e9, Robert Robin (1741\u20131799), and Jean-Simon Bourdier (died 1839). In the \u00c9trennes chronom\u00e9triques<\/em>, Janvier described \u201cthe clock by M. Robin known as the Pyramid: we cite it as a masterpiece of taste and execution. Few men are able so much as to appreciate the case, whose fittings, the fruit of the rare ingenuity of M. Ferdinand Schwerdfeger, were not even known to M. Robin before the work was finished.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Antide Janvier (clockwork mechanism), Joseph Coteau (enamel decoration), Jean-Ferdinand-Joseph Schwerdfeger (cabinetmaking), Geographical Clock, presented to King Louis XVI in 1791 at the Tuileries<\/em>, 1791, Fontainebleau, Ch\u00e2teau de Fontainebleau (inv. F 3261 C)

\u00a9 RMN-Grand-Palais (Fontainebleau) \/ Adrien Didierjean<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Schwerdfeger\u2019s work remains difficult to define today, and his manner has yet to be studied. His stamp and signature are rare: the first is known only on the chest of drawers at the Bordeaux museum, while the second appears inlaid in the queen\u2019s serre-bijoux<\/em> and the Petit Trianon table, and inked on our secretary. Spanning the reigns of Louis XVI, the Directoire, the Consulat, and the Empire, Schwerdfeger\u2019s works stand out for the very high quality of their execution. The cabinetmaker used a fine mahogany with delicate graining, veneered over an oak carcass, and lent all his pieces a certain monumentality. He developed a distinctive technique of an \u201cunattackable polish to eau seconde<\/em>\u201d cited in the archival records, which made the mahogany veneer exceptionally durable. Schwerdfeger was likewise fond of complex, precise mechanisms: the serre-bijoux<\/em> of Marie-Antoinette, like our fall front secretary, contained numerous secret compartments concealed within the carcass of the piece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jean-Ferdinand-Joseph Schwerdfeger, Fall-front secretary<\/em>, Directoire\u2013Consulat period, 1795\u20131803, Galerie L\u00e9age<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Working by turns for the queen and for the greatest clockmakers, Schwerdfeger left behind an \u0153uvre of remarkable technical exigency. The fall-front secretary in the galerie L\u00e9age \u2014 one of the very few pieces that can be attributed to him today \u2014 sums up his art entirely: the beauty of the veneer, the durability of the polish, and the ingenuity of its secret compartments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Bibliography:<\/strong>
Marc-Andr\u00e9 Paulin, \u00ab Schwerdfeger, \u00e9b\u00e9niste de Marie-Antoinette \u00bb, L\u2019Estampille \/ L\u2019Objet d\u2019art<\/em>, n\u00b0 384, octobre 2003
B\u00e9atrice Mura, \u00ab Secr\u00e9taire Louis XVI sign\u00e9 Schwerdfeger \u00bb, L\u2019Estampille \/ L\u2019Objet d\u2019art<\/em>, n\u00b0 235, avril 1990
Jean-Dominique Augarde, Jean N\u00e9r\u00e9e Ronfort, Antide Janvier, M\u00e9canicien-astronome. Horloger ordinaire du Roi<\/em>, \u00c9ditions du Centre de Recherches Historiques sur les Ma\u00eetres \u00c9b\u00e9nistes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

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Still largely overlooked today, Jean-Ferdinand-Joseph Schwerdfeger was the author of one of the most sumptuous pieces of furniture ever delivered for Marie-Antoinette. Active from the end of the eighteenth century into the beginning of the next, he produced cabinetwork poised at the turning point between the Ancien R\u00e9gime and the Empire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6318,"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-6316","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\/6316","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=6316"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter\/6316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6329,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter\/6316\/revisions\/6329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}