Cabinet-maker and bronze-caster (1825-1896)

Louis XVI-style Commode 

France

Stamped H. DASSON and dated 1880

Mahogany, Gilded bronze, Marble

Height : 94 cm (37 in.) ; Width : 152 cm (59,8 in.) ; Depth : 55 cm (21,7 in.)

Exceptional Louis XVI-style commode in flamed mahogany veneer with a slight central bulge, featuring three doors topped by drawers adorned with rich chiseled and mercury-gilded bronze ornamentation depicting ribbon-wrapped branches and garlands of roses. The doors, framed by gilded bronze foliage moldings, are adorned with festoons of flowers, fruits, and leaves suspended from ribbons. The corners are supported by elegant and intricate fluted columns with foliage motifs and lion’s paws, topped with Corinthian capitals. The same decorative motif continues along the sides, which are also adorned with pilasters featuring floral motifs of antique-style vases. The apron is adorned with a wreath of roses surrounded by lily branches. The entire piece rests on six toupie feet with leaf-motif bases and is topped with a Sarrancolin marble top underlined ed by a frieze of ovals.

This commode by Henry Dasson, with its remarkably well-preserved original bronze mounts, brilliantly illustrates the virtuosity of the great Parisian workshops of the late 19th century, where cabinetmaking and bronze work for furniture reached a level of perfection rarely equaled. The quality of the chiseling on the gilded bronze is much more than a mere decorative embellishment : it plays a full part in the piece’s architecture and stylistic language.

related work

This commode by Henry Dasson, also reproduced by other great 19th-century cabinetmakers such as Joseph Emmanuel Zwiener and François Linke, is inspired by a model by Martin Carlin, whose lacquered panels were purchased by the Darnault brothers at the estate sale of the Duc d’Aumont in 1782. It was delivered in 1785 for the grand cabinet of Madame Victoire (1733–1799), daughter of Louis XV, at the Château de Bellevue, now housed at the Louvre Museum (OA 5498).

biography

Cabinet-maker and bronze-caster, Henry Dasson (1825-1896) executed in his Paris workshop sumptuous copies of royal 18th century models and some pieces of his own modified 18th century design. For his pieces of furniture, he used the very finest ormolu mounts with high quality mercurial gilding. He mainly produced in the Louis XV and Louis XVI style. His participation at the Paris 1878 Universal Exhibition was highly remarked with Louis XVI style decorative objects and a table, all made of bronze and considered as a «chasing masterpiece», as well as a copy of the famous King Louis XV desk (original piece exhibited at Versailles), which was also admired by critics. At the 1889 Universal Exhibition, he won a «grand Prix» for his outstanding furniture. Dasson closed down his business in 1894.

Martin Carlin (1730–1785) was a renowned French cabinetmaker of German origin who was granted master status in 1766. At the request of the marchands-merciers Poirier and Daguerre, art dealers based on Rue Saint-Honoré, Martin Carlin specialized in high-end furniture. In his luxurious furniture, he frequently incorporated painted porcelain plaques, lacquered panels, or semi-precious stone mosaics. He designed his furniture at the request of the social elite of the time: the royal family (Marie-Antoinette, Marie-Joséphine of Savoy, Countess of Provence, Madame Adélaïde, and Madame Victoire for their Château de Bellevue), the high aristocracy (the Duchess of Mazarin), and prominent women (Madame du Barry, the actress Marie-Josèphe Laguerre). After his death in 1785, his son, Georges-Antoine Carlin, took over the family workshop to carry on his father’s work until the early 19th century, and his widow remarried Gaspard Schneider, a cabinetmaker (who became a master craftsman in 1786), who also took over the workshop and worked for Daguerre, continuing the work of his predecessor. 

bibliography

– D. Alcouffe, A. Dion-Tennenbaum, A. Lefébure, Le Mobilier du Musée du Louvre, T.1, Edition Faton, 1993,  p 254-257.

– Alexandre Pradère, Les ébénistes français de Louis XV à la Révolution, Éditions Le Chêne, 1989,  p 343-361.

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Cabinet-maker (1830-1880)

Beautiful Commode

France
Circa 1880

Height : 91 cm (35,8 in.) ; Length : 140 cm (55,1 in.) ; Depth : 48 cm (18,9 in.)

Beautiful Louis XVI style commode in mahogay, flamed mahogany veneer, opening with three doors topped with drawers decorated with rich and fine ornamentation in chased and gilded bronze of female masks, ibexes and young satyrs among foliage scrolls and vine branches on a blackened wood background, as well as friezes of oves, ribbons and canals. It is decorated with two uprights with detached columns with brass-lined fluting ending in fluted spinning feet, and topped with a Spanish brocatelle marble.

This commode is inspired by a very characteristic model by Adam Weisweiler (1744-1820), one of the most illustrious cabinetmakers of the reign of Louis XVI. He designed several variations of his models, including a series of commodes with doors such as ours: tripartite front, spinning top feet, veneer panels framed with bronze mounts, detached fluted corner columns, with or without bronze frieze.

related work

Other commodes of this model are exposed in the world’s most famous museums, including a pair at the Louvre. This model was also made with ornamentation of lacquer panels or European varnish. Two of these commodes are preserved at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (Wrightsman collection, 1977.1.12) and at the Kansas City Museum.

Commode by A. Weisweiler, 1788, collections of the Château de Compiègne

biography

Born in Luxembourg, Frédéric Schmit was a cabinetmaker specializing in mahogany and rosewood furniture, and meubles de fantaisie. He practiced at 9 rue de Charonne from 1856, then in 1870, the firm temporarily became SCHMIT, ALAVOINE ET PIOLLET at 9 and 24 rue de Charonne. In 1874, it became SCHMIT ET PIOLLET at 20 rue de Charonne, then moved to 22 from 1876, then became SCHMIT SUCCESSOR around 1888. He won a gold medal at the Universal Exhibitions of 1878 and 1889. Around 1878, the firm began manufacturing art furniture.

Adam Weisweiler (1744-1820), became Maître ébéniste on the 26th of March 1778. He settled rue du Faubourg Saint Antoine. Weisweiler was one of the greatest cabinet-makers of the Louis XVI period. Of German origins, he supposedly trained with the Roentgen. He came to France before 1777, when he got married in the capital. He worked essentially for marchands-merciers such as Daguerre, who sold his works to Queen Marie-Antoinette. With a great technical dexterity, he developed a very personal style playing on different materials such as pietra-dura, lacquer or Sèvres porcelaine plaques. Unlike the majority of cabinet-makers, the French Revolution did not affect his production. Weisweiler worked for Queen Hortense during the Empire period. A great part of his production is housed in public collections such as the Louvre Museum, the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

bibliography

P. Verlet, Le Mobilier Royal Français, Picard, Paris, 1990 ; Vol. I, plate XXIII, no.18.

D. Ledoux-Lebard, Le Mobilier Français du XIXe siècle, Dictionnaire des Ebénistes et des Menuisiers, Editions de L’Amateur, Paris, 1984, p.572.

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Cabinet-maker and bronze-caster
(1847-1919)

Pair of lacquered Encoignures

Stamped twice A BEURDELEY A PARIS on the back

France
Circa 1890

Lacquer, Gilded bronze, Marble

Height : 95 cm (37,4 in.) ; Side : 55 cm (21,6 in.)

Charming Louis XV-inspired pair of encoignures in lacquer and gilded bronze. The animated facade opens to a door adorned with a panel with gilded decoration in the taste of Japan, painted on a black background representing a flower basket flown over by birds. They are embellished with an elegant ornamentation in chiseled and gilded bronze with patterns of leafy falls and foliage. Resting on three feet, two of which have foliage sabots connected by a scalloped apron, they are topped with a molded marble in Breccia of Aleppo.

related work

This pair of encoignures is to be linked to the work of the cabinet-maker Bernard Van Riesen Burgh (1700-1760), especially the ones decorating the private mansion Nissim de Camondo, 63 rue de Monceau in Paris (Inv. CAM 36).

Biography

In 1875, Alfred-Emmanuel Beurdeley (1847-1919) was at first assistant to and later succeeded his father Louis-Auguste Beurdeley, one of the main cabinet-makers of the Second Empire, specializing in 18th century furniture. Louis-Auguste was the star whenever he exhibited and was “most favored by the royal and imperial families”. Although he produced the same kind of works of art as his father, Alfred Beurdeley was also a very well-known art collector and a skilled bronze sculptor. With Dasson, Grohé, Sauvresy and Fourdinois, the most famous artists of the period, he took part in the 1878 Universal Exhibition and won the gold medal. Crowned with glory he went so far as to open a shop in New York. His participation in the 1883 Amsterdam Universal Exhibition drew considerable attention to his work and “Alfred Beurdeley, Fabricant de bronzes d’art” was then awarded the Ordre National de la Legion d’Honneur, France’s highest official mark of recognition. He thus won the respect of both the government and contemporary art critics. His last presentation was during the 1889 Universal and International Exhibition, when the director of the Exhibition wrote in his report: “The talent of Mr Beurdeley is self evident when one inspects his furniture.”

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