(1) One of the finest pieces of French royal furniture in the Wallace Collection is the secretaire made for Queen Marie-Antoinette in 1780.(2) For her, that primary piece is a faux-painted Swedish secretaire , where she keeps stationery, including her own handmade cards.(3) This project has provided an insight into the history and construction of the secretaire and the working practices of a top eighteenth-century craftsman.(4) The secretaire was still in the cabinet interieur at the beginning of the French Revolution, in 1789.(5) The initial dismantling of the secretaire was extremely difficult and revealed much about its technical construction and Riesener's workshop practices.
