French Louis XVI Tea Caddy

A rectangular box with a curved front. The front and the sides, as well as the top of the lid, is decorated with marquetry of flowers within rectangular panels with truncated corners. The back has only a plain panel. The panels are framed with ribbons of boxwood and bois teinté.
The decoration on the front consists of a branches of a rose, a carnation, a starshaped flower, and (possibly) a Clematis durandii.
The hinged lid gives access to three compartments with each a metal can. The outer two cans are storage tins, the center one a mixing caddy.

The signature on the inside is from the furniture maker Jean-Charles Stiasteny, who originated from Germany and worked in Paris in 1759, as can be deduced from an advertisement in “La Feuille Nécessaire” that commended his workshop at the rue du Faubourg Saint Antoine where he offered “differens morceaux d’Ebénisterie, representant divers Paysages d’un coloris aussi agréable que varié”. Stiasteny added that he would be prepared to carry out any design that was offered to him.

Literature:
Geoffrey de Bellaigue, “Engravings and the French Eighteenth-century Marqueteur” dl. I en II, in the Burlington Magazine, vol. 107, (1965), pp. 240-250 en pp. 357-362

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