Salon Bureau Louis XV

A beau­ti­ful­ly craft­ed small sec­re­tary from the renowned work­shop of Pierre Migeon II.

The ele­gant­ly designed case fea­tures a flut­ed apron on tall, curved legs, veneered exclu­sive­ly in rose­wood, some of it in a so-called ​“Papil­lon” (but­ter­fly wing) pattern.

The slant­ed writ­ing sur­face, adorned with band­ed inlay, is posi­tioned above two small draw­ers. Inside, the fold­able writ­ing sur­face is cov­ered with gold-embossed leather. The inte­ri­or of the writ­ing fur­ni­ture con­sists of two stacked open com­part­ments in the cen­ter, with three stepped draw­ers on each side.

A secret com­part­ment is locat­ed cen­tral­ly and can be accessed by slid­ing a small part of the sur­face. Locks, legs, and side pan­els are adorned with fine gilt bronze ele­ments. The small sec­re­tary was designed for use in the cen­ter of a salon, and thus, even the back is fine­ly veneered.

An ele­gant­ly craft­ed small writ­ing piece from the 18^th cen­tu­ry, made by a sig­nif­i­cant French work­shop that was one of Madame de Pom­padour’s favorite ate­liers. Stamped under the apron ​“MIGEON” as well as with the Parisian guild stamp ​“JME”. Stamped fur­ni­ture by Pierre Migeon is rare on the inter­na­tion­al art market.

Many pieces of fur­ni­ture made by Migeon are today housed in major col­lec­tions or muse­ums, such as the Lou­vre Paris, Musée des Arts Déco­rat­ifs Paris, Petit Palais Paris, Musée Car­navalet Paris, Château de Fontainebleau, Château de Champs-sur-Marne, Musée des Arts Déco­rat­ifs Lyon, Musée de Beau­vais, Res­i­dence Col­lec­tion Munich, or in the Roth­schild Col­lec­tion, among others.

Pierre II Migeon (1701−1758) comes from a dynasty of cab­i­net­mak­ers and is arguably one of the most renowned mem­bers of one of the most sig­nif­i­cant Protes­tant cab­i­net­mak­ing fam­i­lies based in Paris. His father, Pierre I (ca. 1670), was a sup­pli­er to the roy­al court and the aris­toc­ra­cy. Pierre II’s career as a cab­i­net­mak­er began around 1726.

It is like­ly that he nev­er offi­cial­ly received the title ​“Maître-Ébéniste,” pos­si­bly due to his strict Calvin­ist beliefs, which pre­vent­ed him from join­ing the guild. It is pre­sumed, how­ev­er, that due to his excep­tion­al tal­ent, he was grant­ed a spe­cial exemp­tion. By 1739, he had tak­en over the man­age­ment of the fam­i­ly work­shop and the busi­ness in Rue de Car­en­ton in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine.

Records from the company’s books in the 1730s show that Migeon ran a pros­per­ous and suc­cess­ful busi­ness. Pierre Migeon II worked dur­ing this peri­od for many promi­nent clients, includ­ing the Duke of Orleans, the Duchess of Bour­bon, and the Duchess of Rohan, to name just a few.

From 1740 onward, he worked for the court, espe­cial­ly for Madame de Pom­padour. He spe­cial­ized in small-sized fur­ni­ture, which was craft­ed with exquis­ite crafts­man­ship in his work­shop, such as trav­el toi­lette sets, fold­ing writ­ing desks, and also the desk pre­sent­ed here.

In addi­tion to his suc­cess­ful career as a cab­i­net­mak­er, he was also a high­ly skilled and suc­cess­ful mer­chant, sourc­ing mate­ri­als from the most notable crafts­men of his time. Char­ac­ter­is­tic of the pieces made in Migeon’s work­shops was their styl­is­ti­cal­ly restrained and unem­bell­ished design. This styl­is­tic con­sis­ten­cy allows for a clear iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of pieces made in Migeon’s workshops.

He worked with the finest veneers of sat­in­wood and rose­wood, with embell­ish­ments in vio­let and ama­ranth wood, and is con­sid­ered one of the first to use sol­id mahogany for his small mas­ter­pieces, often craft­ed for the French nobil­i­ty. His son, Pierre III (1733−1775), who was made a mas­ter in 1761, was in fact more of a mer­chant than a cabinetmaker.

Lit­er­a­ture:

“18^th Cen­tu­ry Cab­i­net­mak­ers’, Count François de Salverte, Les Édi­tions d’Art et d’His­toire, 1934.

French Fur­ni­ture from the 18^th Cen­tu­ry, Pierre Kjell­berg, Les Édi­tions de l’A­ma­teur, 2002.