‘Winged Sirens’ Guéridon by Millet after Weisweiler and Thomire.
Yew wood, Thuya veneer, Sea Green marble, gilt and patinated bronze.
France.
ca. 1860.
78 x 95 x 95 cm (30,7 x 37,4 x 37,4 in.).
It is the famous guéridon table attributed to Weisweiler and Thomire, delivered in 1810 to the Palace of Fontainebleau, that provided the model for the present piece of furniture. Made of yew wood and Thuya veneer, it bears the stamp of Théodore Millet, a great cabinetmaker of the Second Empire, and differs from the original only in that the vase crowning the stretcher is here in marble and not in porcelain. The exceptional quality of the bronzes, and in particular the Siren caryatids, is a reminder that it was by comparing them to a pair of candelabra purchased by the Mobilier from Thomire in 1812 that it was possible to attribute this guéridon to Thomire and Weisweiler.
Other imitations of the same model, later and of inferior quality, but with a porcelain vase on the stretcher, were produced by the cabinetmaker François Linke around 1907, who purchased a guéridon of this model at the auction following Millet's death in 1905 to use it as a pattern.
See Denise Ledoux-Lebard, Les Ébénistes du XIXe siècle, Paris, 1984 ; Christopher Payne, François Linke. 1855-1946. The Belle Epoque of French furniture, Woodbridge, 2003 ; Jean-Pierre Samoyault, Fontainebleau. Musée national du château. Meubles entrés sous le Premier Empire, Paris, 2004.
