Commode (Secrétaire à abattant) 1783 Jean Henri Riesener French Jean-Henri Riesener created this splendid commode and its companion secretary (20.155.11) for Marie-Antoinette in 1783. They were commissioned for the queens Grand Cabinet Intérieur at Versailles, where she kept the collection of Japanese lacquer boxes she had inherited from her mother, Empress Maria Theresa (1717-1780) of Austria. So that their surface decoration would harmonize with that of the boxes, choice fragments of seventeenth-century Japanese lacquer were reused as veneer for these pieces of royal furniture. The shiny black and gold lacquer and lustrous ebony form a striking background for the exceptionally beautiful gilt-bronze mounts. Consisting of swags and interlaced garlands of naturalistic flowers, these jewel-like mounts incorporate the queens initials in the frieze as well as handles shaped like rippling ribbons. Enclosed behind the fall front of the secretary, several secret drawers are hidden beneath t