RIESENER Jean Henri (1725-1806), the celebrated cabinet-maker of Louis XVI., was born at Gladbeck near Cologne in 1725. He was employed by Jean François Oeben in the arsenal, and in 1769 married Oeben’s widow, by whom he had one son. A number of fine examples of Riesener’s cabinets are described in the catalogue of furniture in the South Kensington Museum. He employed tulip, rosewood, holly, maple, laburnum, and purple wood in their construction. Wreaths and bunches of flowers form the centres of his panels; on the sides are diaper patterns in quiet colours. The name of Riesener is stamped sometimes on the panel itself, sometimes on the oak lining of the furniture made by him. The best pieces at the South Kensington Museum are from the collection of Sir Richard Wallace; perhaps the most remarkable is the bureau made for Stanislaus, king of Poland, which is signed by the maker, as is also a similar piece in the Louvre which is accompanied by gilt bronze candle branches by Gouthière. This last work, which bears the date 1769, it is believed that Riesener only finished; and indeed towards the close of his life, after his second marriage (1782) to Marie A. C. Grezel (from whom he was divorced), he ceased to produce anything, and became a collector, buying up his own works. He died January 6, 1806. His son, Henri François (1767-1828), was one of the most noted portrait-painters of the first empire. The portrait of M. Ravrio, a worker in bronze (Louvre), is a good example of his talent.