Guillaume Beneman or Benneman (1750 – after 1811[1]) was a prominent Parisian ébéniste, one of several of German extraction,[2] working in the early neoclassical Louis XVI style, which was already fully developed when he arrived in Paris.
[4] He rapidly became the last of the royal cabinet-makers before the French Revolution, working under the direction (and on occasion to the designs) of the sculptor-entrepreneur Jean Hauré, fournisseur de la cour ("supplier to the Court").
[8] Attempts at economizing, as bankruptcy loomed for France in the final years of the Ancien Régime, recommended Beneman in preference to the extravagant Jean Henri Riesener, in 1785[9] for much of his work he was employed in reconstructing pieces in the royal furnishings[10] or in supplying additional pieces en suite with existing ones, such as the bureau plat delivered 28 December 1786 for Louis XVI's Cabinet Intérieur at Versailles,[11] which, under the artistic direction of the sculptor Jean Hauré, fournisseur de la Cour, meticulously follows the design and decor of the lower section of the Oeben/Riesener Bureau du Roi,[12] or the secretaire in the Wrightsman Collection at the Metropolitan Museum[13] delivered in 1786 by Beneman for Compiègne, where the style was "dictated by certain earlier pieces by Joubert", F.J.B.
Beneman collaborated with what Watson has called "a galaxy of talented craftsmen", instancing the ébéniste Guillaume Kemp, the bronziers Forestier, Thomire and Bardin, and the sculptors Boizot and Martin.
[15] For a unique commission like the royal bureau plat of 1786, Martin provided a wax model of the original desk, Girard painted studies of fruit and flowers to be followed by Bertrand's designs, that were cut apart for the marquetry-cutters in Guillaume Kemp's workshop, Bardin and Thomire for finishing and mounting gilt-bronze myrtle moldings, gilded by Galle; Gosselin stamped in gilt the Morocco leather writing surface; Benneman sub-contracted the locksmith's work incorporated in his ébénisterie; his workers were paid 785 livres and he personally received 508 livres.