The Durand family was one of the great masters of the traditional Parisian cabinet-making. They were active in the last twenty years of the nineteenth century, with Gervais Durand (1839-1920), installed since 1870, and who participated in the Universal Exhibition of 1889, where he won a silver medal. G. Durand produced almost exclusively reproductions of the eighteenth century masterpieces, including those made by the Parisian cabinet-makers B.V.R.B. (1696-1767), R.V.L.C. (1727-1799) or Martin Carlin (1730-1785). His works reveal in all points the great harmony between the forms, marquetry decoration and bronzes. Overall, their creation was limited to a change in the outdoor setting, with a different veneer from the model. Sometimes furniture changed destination, making a chest of drawers a convenient showcase, all in the utmost respect of the techniques used and the overall harmony of lines. Everything was calculated to perfection. Housed since 1898 in the Hôtel de Sully, rue Saint-Antoine, Gervais Durand teamed in 1902 with his son Frédéric Louis (1874-1933), who succeeded him in 1920 and whom later associated his son, Pierre, until the closing of the house in 1933.