o him by the King, the royal family, and other debtors 504,571
livres, without counting the finished objects in his warehouses, his
models of bronze, his jewels, and personal effects, and several
important life annuities. Between 1775 and 1785 he received from the
Garde Meuble 500,000 livres, so profitable had the production of
furniture of the highest class become. He was in full work at the time
of the Revolution, and two of his finest pieces bear the dates 1790 and
1791 in their marquetry. When the furniture of the royal residences was
sold, Riesener bought back several pieces, being aided by Charles
Delacroix, the husband of his first wife's daughter, who directed the
sale at Versailles. He tried to sell these again, but with poor success,
and when he died, on January 8th, 1806, at the age of 71, he was again
almost without fortune. His beautiful bureau secretary in the Wallace
collection, made for Stanislas Leczinski, King of Poland, and dated
1769, shows him at his best. The workmanship is superb, and the design
most pleasing, almost the only point to which exception may be taken
being the crude green, obtained by staining, here and there. The
half-length of Secrecy in the oval cartouche at the back is as good as
the best Italian figure work, and was often reproduced by him. The
flower panels are particularly delicate and beautiful. There is an
upright secretary, also by him, in the same collection almost equally
delicate and beautiful in its marquetry decorations. The diaper patterns
so characteristic of this period are most beautifully executed, but are
not very interesting, and the mountings take the interest rather from
the marquetry, becoming more and more delicately designed and
elaborately worked. The principal woods used by Riesener were tulip and
rose wood, holly, maple, laburnum, purple wood, and sometimes snake
wood. His contemporary, David Roentgen, used principally pear, lime, and
light-coloured woods, burnt for the shades.

[Illustration: Plate 49.--_Panel from back of Riesener's bureau, made
for Stanislas Leczinski, with figure of Secrecy._

_To face page 100._]

[Illustration: Plate 50.--_Roundel from bureau, made for Stanislas
Leczinski, King of Poland, now in the Wallace Collection._

_To face page 102._]

Paris has endured a regular invasion of German craftsmen from the middle
of the eighteenth century, and the Faubourg S. Antoine still has a
number of German-born joiners among its workmen.