Godefroy Dester

Godefroy Dester (d. December 24, 1805) was one of the most important Parisian cabinetmakers of the last quarter of the 18th century. After becoming a maître in July 1774, he opened a workshop in the rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine and soon gained fame and renown. He mostly produced pieces of furniture decorated with marquetry or with high-quality mahogany veneer. However, he is also known to have supplied, through the intermediary of the mirror merchant Delaroue, a magnificent pair of commodes decorated with Paris porcelain plaques that were intended for the bedchamber of the Count d’Artois – the brother of Louis XVI – in the Palais du Temple (see P. Kjellberg, Le mobilier français du XVIIIe siècle, Dictionnaire des ébénistes et des menuisiers, Paris, 2002, p. 297).