China, Canton
Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) – Qianlong Period, late 18th Century

Height : 205 cm (80,7 in.) ; Panel width : 55 cm (21,6 in.) ; Depth : 1,8 cm (0,7 in.)
Total width : 55 x 8 = 440 cm (173,2 in.)

Beautiful eight-panel Chinese lacquer screen featuring a large, continuous landscape (shanshui) richly animated with scenes of daily Chinese life, depicting scholars, traditional pavilions, bridges, and weeping willows set against mountainous backdrops. The main scene is framed by a frieze of leafy scrollwork and cartouches depicting animals in landscapes, a style typical of export pieces. The reverse side of the screen is adorned with large motifs of flowering branches and birds.

The format of this large, multi-panel screen, combined with this very specific style of gold decoration on a black lacquer background known as miaojin, is entirely characteristic of works intended for the European market via the East India Companies, a tradition that reached its peak during the 18th century and continued to be produced throughout the 19th century.

Commentary

During the reign of Emperor Qianlong (1735–1796), the Qing Dynasty experienced one of its most prosperous periods. The Chinese Empire reached its territorial peak, enjoyed strong economic growth, and was marked by remarkable developments in the arts, crafts, and imperial manufacturing.
This era was also marked by a significant expansion of trade with the West. Although foreign trade was strictly controlled by the Canton System, European merchants, particularly British, French, Dutch, and Portuguese, imported large quantities of highly sought-after goods, including porcelain, silks, lacquerware, ivory objects, furniture, and tea, which had become a major consumer product in Europe. Chinese workshops sometimes adapted their creations to Western tastes, producing objects specifically intended for export, decorated with European motifs or bearing the coats of arms of noble families. This trade helped spread the refinement of Chinese art throughout Europe and had a lasting influence on Western decorative arts in the 18th century.

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Cabinet-maker (1839-1920)

Pair of display Pedestals

France
Circa 1880

Stamped G. DURAND

Mahogany, Gilded bronze

Height : 145 cm (57 in.) ; Width : 46 cm (18,1 in.) ; Depth : 30 cm (11,8 in.)

Beautiful pair of display pedestals in mottled mahogany, adorned with chiseled and gilded bronze in a neoclassical Louis XVI style. The rectangular top, bordered by a moldings, is accentuated by four acanthus-leaf clasps resting on a chamfered entablature. The main face is decorated with a central cartouche framed by a pearl frieze, featuring, on either side of a fire pot, two facing sphinxes whose tails extend into acanthus scrolls adorned with delicate vine tendrils and pearl friezes. The beveled corners are embellished with fluted bands featuring ivy leaves and draped fire pots set against a background of Greek motifs; they are extended at the bottom by serrated fluting ending in four lion’s claws terminating in acanthus leaves. They rest on a four-lobed base with toupie feet. 

This type of furniture, whose primary function was to display luxurious ceremonial objects, experienced significant growth in the 17th century, during the reign of Louis XIV. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, following the Rococo period—which was then considered too extravagant—tastes returned to the French classicism of the Grand Siècle. This interest was linked to the fashion for mahogany, inherited from Great Britain, which enjoyed great popularity from the late 18th century onward and continued into the 19th century.

biography

Gervais Durand (1839-1920) participated in the 1889 Universal Exhibition where he was awarded a silver medal. A. Picard’s exhibition report stated that, « Mr Durand, cabinet-maker, as skillful as modest, displays for the first time very fine furniture, which has been designed and made by him. He is walking in the footsteps of giants such as Beurdeley and Dasson ». Durand made almost exclusively reproductions of 18th Century masterpieces.

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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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Chairmaker (1743 – 1802)
(attributed to)

Set of Six Cabriolet Armchairs

France
Circa 1780

Beech

Height : 93 cm (36,6 in.) ; Width : 59 cm  (23,2 in.) ; Depth : 53 cm (20,8 in.)

Rare set of six cabriolet armchairs in carved beech, painted cream white. Resting on four tapered, fluted legs, the flared seat is supported by a set of traverses adorned with a frieze of water leaves and featuring, at the base, a trophy of arms composed of torches, a quiver with feathers, and a mask. The armrests and their consoles extend from connecting blocks adorned with a rosette and are molded all the way up to the oval backrest, known as a medallion. At the top of the backrest sits a second trophy of attributes, combining a torch, quiver, scroll, and wreath of leaves. The seat, backrest, and armrests are upholstered in blue velvet with a floral design.

related works

The finesse of the wood carving is comparable to that of the chairmaker Jean-Baptiste III Lelarge (1743–1802), who was admitted as a master in 1775; a side chair similar to our rare set is held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (inv. no. 23. 147.3), or to the elegant pair of gilded wooden armchairs at the Nissim de Camondo Museum (inv. nos. CAM 648.1 and CAM 648.2).

Side chair, of a pair
J.-B. III Lelarge
Circa 1775-1780
New-York, Metropolitan Museum, no.inv. 23.147.3

© Les Arts Décoratifs / Jean Tholance

Pair of cabriolet armchairs
J.-B. III Lelarge
Circa 1780
Paris, Musée Nissim de Camondo, no.inv. CAM 648.1 et CAM 648.2

Biography

Jean-Baptiste III Lelarge was one of the finest chairmakers of the reign of Louis XVI. He succeeded his father, Jean-Baptiste II Lelarge, and worked for a wealthy clientele in France and abroad, including the King of Portugal. Jean-Baptiste Lelarge’s chairs are, for the most part, exceptionally beautiful: sturdy yet not heavy, rigorously constructed, and impeccably assembled, they are adorned with simple moldings or fine, incisive carvings, well-distributed and never overloaded. In Lelarge’s designs, there is a predominance of chairs with medallion backs, which are found in fairly large numbers today. This backrest is frequently supported by two curved posts, carved with acanthus leaves. 

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Cabinet-maker and Bronze-caster (1855-1946)
(attributed to)

State Console Table

France
Circa 1890

Marble, Gilded Wood

Height : 90 cm (35,4 in.) ; Width : 180 cm (70,8 in.) ; Depth : 63,5 cm (25 in.)

Beautiful, stately Regency-style console table carved from gilded wood. The base rests on four double-curved legs, whose movement is accentuated by abundant carving of veined acanthus leaves. These plant motifs follow the curve of the wood and extend into robust scrolls, giving the piece an impression of controlled suppleness and monumentality. The piece is stabilized by an X-shaped brace, whose sinuous arms meet at the center via volutes forming a large, finely carved palm, revealing here the full dexterity of its cabinetmaker.

The gilded wooden band, ingeniously openwork in a rigorously symmetrical composition characteristic of the Regency style, displays a rich floral decoration where the material is perfectly mastered. Vigorous acanthus scrolls punctuated by cascades and garlands of flowers run beneath the rim of the top. In the center, a mascaron featuring a gentle female face carved in high relief emerges from the flowers. The piece is topped by a molded “Fleur de Pêcher” marble top with a scalloped edge.

Related work

Inventory photograph by François Linke, console table no. 1890.

The quality of the wood carving on our console table is comparable to the work of François Linke, a master cabinetmaker renowned for his finesse and openwork. While he has a perfect command of traditional styles, he surpasses them here by adding a remarkable interplay of volumes, bringing the plant motifs to life. Like Linke’s cataloged pieces, such as this Louis XV-style console table (inv. no. 1890), the carving of the wood at its peak contributes to the craftsman’s renown.  

Biography

François Linke, born in 1855 in Bohemia (Czechoslovakia), worked as a cabinet-maker in Paris from about 1882 until his death in 1946. In 1900, at the apex of his career, he opened a new shop at the famous Parisian place Vendôme. He specialized in Louis XV and Louis XVI style furniture: all pieces were beautifully mounted with gilt-bronze ornaments, and he received numerous commissions. Later Linke decided to collaborate with the well-known sculptor Léon Messagé and integrated new lines and shapes announcing the “Art Nouveau” style. His great success is definitely the 1900 Universal Exhibition where he was awarded the gold medal for his extraordinary kingwood desk, designed by Messagé. At this occasion, the “Revue artistique et industrielle” commented that “Linke’s stand is the biggest show in the history of art furniture”.

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Cabinet-maker (1817-1884)

Flat Desk

France
Circa 1860

Rosewood, Gilded bronze

Height : 73,5 cm (28,9 in.) ; Length : 118,5 cm (46,6 in.) ; Depth: 64 cm (25,2 in.)

Beautiful Louis XV style desk in rosewood veneer and chiseled and gilded bronze. It is decorated on all sides, in cartouches circled by a frieze of eggs and foliage, with a marquetry of diamonds. Covered with a top sheathed with black leather and surrounded by a mold, it opens on one side with three drawers. The whole rest on four cabriole legs decorated at the corner with ram’s heads and ending with four leafy hooves.

biography

The Wassmus were a family of cabinet-makers active in Paris from around 1815 to 1868, suppliers to the Imperial Garde-Meuble under the Second Empire, specializing in the creation of prestigious marquetry furniture. Under the company name Wassmus brothers first operated Jean-Henri-Chrétien (1784-1858) and his brother Jean-Henri-Christophe (1786/1864) then their sons, including Henri-Léonard (1817-1884), who created and designed most of the furniture coming out of the workshop. Working as a family, it is difficult to precisely attribute the works by author. They specialized in the manufacture of very high-quality furniture, particularly in the Boulle, Louis XV, Louis XVI and Napoleon III styles. The Louis XVI-style chests of drawers furnishing the Hôtel de Marigny in Paris are by Henri-Léonard Wassmus ; they come from the Prince Imperial’s bedroom at the Élysée Palace. In 1844, they were awarded a silver medal at the Exposition des Produits de l’Industrie, and exhibited at the Universal Exhibitions in Paris in 1855 and 1867.

bibliography

Les ébénistes du XIXe siècle, Denise Ledoux-Lebard, Ed. de l’Amateur, 1984, p. 620-621

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France
Circa 1880

Porcelain, Gilded and patinated bronze

Height : 87 cm (34,2 in.) ; Diameter : 50,5 cm (19,9 in.)

Charming circular pedestal table with a polychrome porcelain top and a patinated and gilded bronze base. The top is decorated at its center with a painted medallion depicting two draped female figures positioned on either side of an altar, accompanying a winged Cupid in an allegorical iconography evoking the themes of Love and sacrifice. Surrounding this medallion extends a wide recessed turquoise-blue ground, creating a sense of depth and recalling certain “celestial blue” backgrounds favored in European manufactories in the 19th century, such as the Sèvres manufactory. The outer marli is adorned with a series of oval cartouches outlined with a gilt line, each depicting a Cupid in varied poses, playing with floral attributes, holding ribbons or arrows. The regular alternation of cartouches and light reserves establishes a harmonious decorative rhythm. The outer rim, highlighted with a strong pink tone, frames the composition.

The top rests on a patinated bronze support enriched with gilded highlights, composed of a bowl decorated with antique-style medallions and relief heads surrounded by interlacing motifs. Embellished with small chains, it continues with a fluted shaft punctuated by gilded rings and stands on a tripod base alternating lion-paw feet and palmettes, motifs borrowed from the vocabulary of Antiquity and reinterpreted by Neoclassicism.

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France
Circa 1870

Giltwood, Marble

Height : 90 cm (35,4 in.) ; Width : 117 cm (46 in.) ; Depth : 55 cm (21,7 in.)

This carved and giltwood console table in the Régence style features an elegant, architectural composition. It stands out for its structure with two boldly curved console legs, richly carved with foliage, fluting, and scrollwork, ending in claw feet resting on molded bases.
The belt is abundantly decorated: at the center, a prominent radiating shell motif, framed by symmetrical scrolls and volutes, is set within a panel with a finely textured background. Carved drops and foliate ornaments accentuate the corners and reinforce the overall decorative balance. Although lavish, the ornamentation remains controlled, perfectly illustrating the transition between the rigor of the Louis XIV style and the decorative freedom of the emerging Louis XV style.
The two legs are joined by an openwork stretcher adorned with a central shell and scrolls, adding both stability and refinement to the structure. The white marble top, lightly molded, contrasts with the brilliance of the gilding, highlighting the depth of the carving.
The whole conveys an impression of prestige and lightness, characteristic of Régence consoles designed for formal reception rooms.

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Bronze-caster (active from 1831 to 1864)
(attributed to)

 « Bacchantes » gueridon

France
Circa 1860

Gilded bronze, Malachite

Height : 80,5 cm (31,7 in.) ; Diameter : 104 cm (40,9 in.)

Rare circular gueridon resting on a tripod base in finely chiseled and gilded bronze, supporting a matched Ural malachite top, circled by a frieze of water leaves and pearls.
The base is composed of three bacchantes executed fully in the round, presented as caryatids and joined together by leafy scrolls and cartouches adorned with mascarons. The figures, with their slender proportions and idealized anatomy, adopt a dynamic posture, their raised arms supporting the band beneath the top.
The triangular base with rounded angles is enriched with neoclassical motifs such as palmettes, gadroons, and acanthus leaves.

Through the exceptional quality of the casting, the finesse of the chasing, and the masterful balance between sculpture and decorative architecture, this gueridon belongs to the tradition of mid-19th-century Parisian state furniture. It may be attributed to the bronze-maker Henri Picard, whose workshop distinguished itself by works of extreme refinement intended for an aristocratic and international clientele, and by a learned reinterpretation of Antique and Renaissance models characteristic of the eclectic taste of the Second Empire.

Biography

Henri Picard (active 1831-1864), gilder and bronzemaker, settled in Paris at 6 rue de Jarente from 1831 to 1839, then at 10 rue de la Perle from 1840 to 1864. He carried out the gilding of the Petits Appartements of Napoleon III at the Louvre Palace. He produced a wide variety of works, such as a Japonist inkwell and Pompeian-style centerpieces. Henri Picard earned his reputation for the exceptional quality of his jardinières and fireplace garnitures.

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Goldsmith (19th Century)
(attributed to)

Pair of Gueridons

England
Circa 1890

Algerian Onyx, Patinated, gilded and silvered copper

Height : 95 cm (37,4 in.) ; Diameter : 46,5 cm (18,3 in.)

Exceptional pair of Neo-Greek–inspired gueridons, crafted in patinated, gilded, and silvered galvanic copper. The Algerian banded onyx tops are framed by a delicate frieze of palmettes. The decorative appeal of these gueridons is further enhanced by magnificent ivy leaves.
The tripodal bases are crowned with majestically detailed lion heads, symbols of power and nobility. The clawed feet flare gracefully, providing both stability and elegance to the structure. The whole is connected by a stretcher adorned with vegetal motifs.

This pair of gueridons stands out not only for the quality of its craftsmanship and its precious materials, but also for the harmony of its decoration, in which the ivy seems to come alive around the onyx, creating an elegant and timeless atmosphere at the crossroads of Neoclassicism and vegetal Romanticism.

Biography

The renowned firm Elkington, founded in Birmingham in 1824 by George Richards Elkington (1800–1865), began by producing silver mounts for perfume bottles. In 1829, the business expanded sufficiently to allow the company to establish itself in London. In the late 1830s, Elkington began experimenting with gilding and silver-plating based on the principles of electro-metallurgy and filed a patent in 1840, the rights to which were later acquired by the Parisian goldsmith Christofle. While Elkington owed its rise to the commercial exploitation of this new technical process, it nevertheless lacked the artists needed to rank among the leading silversmiths in England. The firm therefore employed two of the most skilled and renowned French designers, Albert Willms (1827–1899) and later Léonard Morel-Ladeuil (1820–1888). Through their works, they helped elevate Elkington’s reputation to the highest level during the famous national and international exhibitions.

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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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France
20th Century

Oak, Leather

Height : 97 cm (38,2 in.) ; Length : 134 cm (52,7 in.) ; Width : 65 cm (25,6 in.)

Pair of curved deckchairs in oak, with Havana leather upholstery. They are equipped with a rack and pinion system to adjust the inclination of the backrest and increase the comfort.

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France
Circa 1880

Oak

Height : 228 cm (89,7 in.); Width : 96 cm (37,8 in.)

Rare pair of high relief carved oak doors. They are composed of a frame of canal friezes and each decorated with three molded boxes with a projecting panel, decorated with a medallion centered with acanthus, a rosette and a lion’s head. The back of these doors is also molded to echo the panels on the other side.

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Furniture Manufacturer (since 1819)

Salon Set

Stamped and bearing the label THONET WIEN

Austria
Circa 1904

Armchairs – Height : 106 cm (41,7 in.) ; Width : 54,5 cm (21,5 in.) ; Depth : 55 cm (21,7 in.)
Sofa – Height : 106 cm (41,7 in.) ; Length : 105,5 cm (41,5 in.) ; Depth : 53,5 cm (21 in.)
Gueridon – Height : 74 cm (29,1 in.) ; Diameter : 65,5 cm (25,8 in.)
Jette-habits – Height : 137 cm (53,9 in.) ; Length : 130 cm (51,2 in.) ; Depth : 44 cm (17,3 in.)

Elegant salon set in curved wood and cane, composed of two armchairs, a sofa, a gueridon and a jette-habits. The armchairs and the sofa have openwork backs decorated with five circular perforations and five vertical bars, and a geometric patterned cushion covers the seat.
The jette-habits is made up of three upper crosspieces in the shape of a humpback, an intermediate cane shelf extended by umbrella stands at the ends, and finally, a base ending in metal trays used to collect water from umbrellas or rain clothes.
They are accompanied by a gueridon designed by Josef Hoffmann and Gustav Siegel, with a circular top and base connected by four uprights formed of double columns separated by a sphere.

related work

The armchairs and the sofa are derived from the 511 model produced by Thonet from 1904, the bench under the number 2511, and the armchair under the number 1511. The jette-habits is listed under the number 11951

Biography

Michael Thonet (1796-1871) was a German-Austrian cabinetmaker and industrialist spotted, brought by Prince Clemens Metternich, Chancellor of Austria to Vienna in 1842, where he presented his creations to the Emperor. Employed by Clemens List, the leading Viennese cabinetmaker, the latter recommended him to the English architect of the Prince of Liechtenstein, and he was entrusted with the creation of the furniture and parquet flooring for the Liechtenstein Palace. In July 1851, Thonet presented his latest furniture at the London Universal Exhibition, where he received the Bronze Medal, contributing to his international reputation. Faced with the influx of orders, he expanded his facilities and purchased his first steam engine. Around forty employees worked in the company when he handed it over to his five sons, including a chemist ; but he actually continued to run it until his death.
International exhibitions expanded markets, and Thonet increased production. He moved the factory to Koryčany, Moravia, in July 1856, employing 300 workers and producing 200 pieces of furniture per day. In 1859, he decided to create a new company, and there he developed chair No. 14, which he created for Anna Daum, director of the Daum café, who dreamed of “practical, elegant and space-saving chairs.” Orders quickly followed, and Thonet decided to mass-produce No. 14 ; it would become his first industrial model, even bearing his name.
By the time of his death in 1871, his company had six factories in Europe, supplying a commercial network of 14 stores worldwide, including 15 Boulevard Poissonnière in Paris, which would become the headquarters of Thonet Frères France. Other shops were also located in Chicago and New York at this time. After 1945, Gebrüder Thonet was headquartered in Frankenberg, Germany. In 1976, the Austrian branch became independent under the name Thonet Wien. In 2006, the German company became Thonet GmbH.

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Clockmakers & Bronze-casters (Firm founded in 1813)
(attributed to)

Pair of Andirons

France
Circa 1870

Gilded and patinated bronze

Height : 61 cm (24 in.) ; minimum Length : 101 cm (39,7 in.) / maximum Length : 150 cm (59 in.) ; Depth : 20 cm (7,8 in.)

Large pair of Louis XVI style andirons and its fender in patinated and gilded chiseled bronze. The andirons are decorated with fluted columns with asparagus, surmounted by flaming cassolette, in front of which are seated winged Cupids who have laid down their quivers and are blowing to fan the flame. They rest on feet hooves-shaped feet. The fender is decorated with an openwork frieze of interlacing centered with small flowers.

Biography

The company Raingo Frères, founded in Paris in 1813, installed their workshops around 1830 at n°8 Touraine Street, then at n°102 Vieille-du-Temple Street. The four Raingo brothers first known as clockmakers, added to their 1841 sale catalog some art bronze works as well as decorative bronze pieces. In 1860, they supplied the palaces of the Emperor Napoleon III. First specialized in Antique statues reproductions, they cast then models sculpted by contemporary artists such James Pradier (1790-1852), Albert Carrier-Belleuse (1824-1887) et Auguste Moreau (1834-1917). Present at the Universal Exhibitions of 1862 in London and of 1867, 1878 and 1889 in Paris, it won awards each time, including the gold medal in 1889.

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Cabinet-maker (1769-1840)
(attributed to)

Empire Period Dressing Table

France
Circa 1810

Mahogany, Gilded bronze, Marble

Height: 155 cm (61 in.) ; Width : 99 cm (38,9 in.) ; Depth : 48 cm (18,9 in.)

Elegant Empire period dressing table in mahogany and mahogany veneer, decorated with rich chiseled and mercury gilded bronze ornamentation. Surmounted by an oval-shaped psyche mirror, decorated with a frieze of ivy and small flowers, with uprights each supporting two light-arms. Composed in the lower part of a console covered with a black marble top, it opens on the belt with three drawers, richly decorated with palmettes, surrounding a central cartouche in projection decorated with two winged victories embracing an allegorical figure and revealing a sliding tablet forming a writing desk.
It is supported by two console uprights at the front and two pilaster uprights at the rear, resting on a concave-shaped plinth ending in casters.

The ancestor of the dressing table appeared during Antiquity in the form of a dressing table, named after the cloth placed on it. In the Middle Ages, women used ordinary tables on which polished metal mirrors were placed.
In the 18th century and during the first half of the 19th century, the dressing table became essential and responded to a social reality, with important people receiving their guests while they were preparing themselves.
Precious woods and rich gilded bronze ornamentation are used for these pieces of furniture, which, beyond their practical aspect, also reflect the social status of the person who owns them. Some talented cabinetmakers transformed the dressing table from a practical piece of furniture into a piece of furniture with transformations and combinations, and some models, like the dressing table presented here, can also serve as a writing table or a game table.

biography

Pierre-Benoît Marcion (1769-1840) worked as a cabinetmaker from 1798 to 1817 and was one of the main suppliers of Napoleon I after Jacob, specializing in mahogany furniture decorated with gilded bronzes. His first official order was the delivery of 82 mahogany chairs for the Senate in 1801. From 1805 onwards, he regularly supplied the Garde-Meuble Imperial, including most of the athéniennes for the imperial palaces. Initially established at 41 rue Neuve-des-Petits-Champs, he moved in 1801 to 666 rue Helvétius (Saint-Anne) then to 3 rue de Choiseul from 1811 to 1816. He mainly supplied the Pavillon du Mail, the Petit and Grand Trianon, the Palais de Compiègne, and Fontainebleau. Upon the return of the Bourbons, he had the supplies made during the last years of the Empire paid for and abandoned cabinetmaking in 1817.

bibliography

Les Ébénistes du XIXe siècle, Denise Ledoux-Lebard, Editions de l’Amateur, 1984, pp.461-469.

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France
Circa 1760

Gilded and patinated bronze

Height : 22 cm (8,6 in.) ; Width : 23 cm (9 in.) ; Depth : 8 cm (3,1 in.)
With the bar – Width : 26,5 cm (10,4 in.) ; Depth : 55 cm (21,6 in.)

Charming pair of Rocaille andirons decorated with patinated bronze Cupids resting in gilded bronze foliage scrolls.

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France
20th Century

Walnut

Height : 152 cm (59,8 in.) ; Width : 61 cm (24 in.) ; Depth : 40 cm (15,7 in.)

Beautiful naturalist Art Nouveau style shelf in carved walnut with poppy flower motifs, with inlaid decoration on three sides of flowers and vegetation in landscapes. It opens in the upper part to a door and a central upright supports two offset shelves.

related work

This shelf is inspired by the creations of Emile Gallé, famous cabinet-maker of the Art Nouveau period, and particularly by his “Umbelliferae shelf”, exposed in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Reims, inv. 941.3.523.

Biography

Emile Gallé (Nancy, 1846-1904), as a ceramist, carpenter and glassmaker, is one of the founding artists of Art Nouveau. His father, Charles Gallé (1818-1902), already a major artist, had successfully launched the family business in the production of pottery. After school in Nancy, Emile Gallé went to Weimar in 1865 and studied there mineralogy. He then went to Meisenthal for learning glass and ceramics crafts. He added to this a good knowledge of woodworking and of natural sciences, the family passion, especially for plants that led him to drawing. In 1877, working hard, he took over his father’s activities and developped the firm. Participating in the 1878 Universal Exhibition, he was awarded four gold medals. His fame spread to the world then. At the 1889 Universal Exhibition, Emile Gallé was awarded the Grand Prize and was made an Officer of the Legion of Honor. About this time, about three hundred artists and artisans were working for him. He forbade his employees to carve a signle flower without having seen himself the work before. The Universal Exhibition of 1900 was undoubtedly the crowning achievement of his career with two major awards and gold medals and was appointed Commander of the Legion of Honor. Emile Gallé was also a convinced humanist, a founder of the University of Nancy and became treasurer of the French League for Human Rights.

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Cabinet-maker(1849-1895)
(attributed to)

Pair of Tables

France
Circa 1885

Height : 72 cm (28,3 in.) ; Width : 64 cm (25,2 in.) ; Depth : 37 cm (14,5 in.)

Charming Louis XV style tables forming a pair, in a scalloped shape, opening with a drawer on the belt and made in kingwood and satinwood veneer. Their tray surrounded by a bronze mold is decorated with elegant floral marquetry in bois de bout on a satin background. Beautiful decoration of chiseled and gilded bronzes composed of branches. They rest on four cabriole legs decorated with foliage falls ending in hooves.

Biography

Joseph-Emmanuel Zwiener was born in Germany in 1849. In 1880 he sets up his extensive workshops in rue de la Roquette in Paris where he creates many original pieces of furniture. He imitated practically every style, ranging from ‘’Boulle’’ to Louis XVI and including extraordinary personal interpretations of the Louis XV ‘’exuberant’’ style. He participated in the 1889 Universal Exhibition, held in Paris, and was awarded the gold medal for his remarkable copy of that most famous piece of furniture, Louis XV’s desk. The catalogue of the exhibition included a wonderful elegy qualifying the work as perfect : « No criticism what-so-ever could be made ». As that other famous cabinet-maker François Linke, Zwiener had most of his bronzes modelled by Léon Messagé whose work was considered as being of the best possible quality.

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Cabinet-maker (1830-1906)

« Japonisme » Writing-Table

France
Circa 1880

Alder, Gilded bronze, Griotte Marble

Height : 84 cm (33 in.) ; Width : 77 cm (30,3 in.) ; Depth : 45,5 cm (17,9 in.)

Beautiful Japonisme writing table in tinted and carved alder, opening with a belt drawer with engraved decoration of bamboo and flowers and decorated with openwork leafy friezes in bronze, forming a writing tablet covered in velvet.
It rests on four feet mounted at the corners of lion masks in gilded bronze and joined by an openwork spacer, and ending in lion paws. It is topped with a molded Griotte marble.

Biography

Gabriel Viardot (1830-1906) career began as a wood carver and he produced small furniture, sculpturally carved with naturalistic motifs and animals. In the 1855 Exposition Universelle in Paris, his finely sculpted objects were well received. However, with the increasing importation of similarly produced Swiss and German articles, he found less opportunity for these and decided to inovate. G. Viardot succeded to his father’s business in 1861 installed rue Rambuteau in Paris. Around 1870 he turned to the idea of producing « Meubles genre Chinois et Japonais ». The taste in Europe for exotic furniture, incorporating sometimes authentic Chinese or Japanese objects was well established. But Viardot early designed his own models enriched with ivory, mother-of-pearl and beautiful gilt-bronze mounts. After having won four medals at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1867, Viardot was awarded a silver medal at the 1878 Universal Exhibition in Paris. He was also awarded gold medals several times : Universal Exhibitions in Anvers (Belgium) in 1884, and again in Paris in 1889 and 1900. A contemporary commentator notes that he had a workshop employing approximately 100 men, both sculptors and cabinet-makers with another 25 to 30 outside contract workers. « l’Escalier de Cristal », the famous Parisian offering luxuruous furniture got the exclusivity to use their own stamp on six Viardot’s furniture models.

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Milan, Italy
19th Century

Blackened and painted wood, Gilded bronze

Height : 303 cm (119,3 in.) ; Width : 127,5 cm (50,2 in.) ; Depth : 52 cm (20,5 in.)

Rare set including a console and a mirror in blackened, gilded and painted wood of antique inspiration.
The console, topped with molded Italian Portor marble, is decorated with three portraits in bronze medallions alternating with two painted friezes representing fantastic creatures and foliage scrolls on a golden background. It rests on sculpted winged sphinxes, with gilded plastrons highlighted with flowers, resting on an openwork spacer decorated with palmettes.
It is topped with a large matching mirror bordered by grotesques on a gold background, surrounded by a fluted brass tube and adorned with carved wooden chimeras.
The pediment with a Gorgon’s head in gilded bronze is crowned with two cupids holding a coat of arms with a lion rampant holding a cross.

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Furniture Manufacture (1883-c.1940)

« Egg » Rocking Chair

Italy
Circa 1922

Wood, Rattan

Height : 99 cm (38,9 in.) ; Width : 72,5 cm (28,5 in.) ; Depth : 107 cm (42,1 in.)

Rare “Egg” rocking chair in curved and stained wood, with caned seat and back. The wide oval-shaped armrests, giving their name to the model, and allowing gentle swinging, are stabilized by small balls at the back. Here we find aerodynamic ergonomics providing additional comfort to this chair, such as the curved frame of the seat to adapt to the shape of the person sitting.

Related work

Antonio Volpe’s armchair is inspired by the Sitzmachine, or sitting machine, a model designed by Josef Hoffmann in 1905 in Vienna under the number 670 and manufactured by Jacob & Josef Kohn. The armchair was first presented at the Kunstschau in Vienna in 1908. Designed to be easy to manufacture and assemble, it was produced from 1905 to 1916.

The model presented here is a variant of the armchair listed under number 267 in the Catalog of the Anonima Antonio Volpe Company, p. 14.

Biography

In 1883, the businessman Antonio Volpe decided to create a company manufacturing bentwood furniture in Udine, operational in 1884. The company only supplied the Italian market and received numerous awards at exhibitions for the excellence of its products. During the First World War, the Udine factory was destroyed and rebuilt after the war. Around 1922, the Società Anonima Antonio Volpe published a 34-page catalog of illustrations featuring a range of selected models. The cover of the catalog was decorated with an “Egg” rocking chair, on which a fox (“volpe”) sits, raising one of its paws. In 1940, the production of bentwood furniture ended.

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France
Circa 1780

Carrara Marble

Height : 105 cm (41,3 in.) ; Length : 183 cm (72 in.) ; Depth : 29 cm (11,4 in.)

Rare neo-classical Louis XVI period console sculpted in white Carrara marble. The rectangular lintel, surmounted with a molded top, is supported by four detached fluted columns with Doric capitals.

The straight lines and refined style of this console perfectly illustrate the neo-classical style which was very successful under Louis XVI. Succeeding the Rocaille and the scalloped forms of the Louis XV style, with the reign of Louis XVI, there is a return to the rigor of geometric shapes inspired, among others, by the discovery of vestiges of antiquity in Herculaneum (in 1738) and Pompeii (in 1748).
The structure of the furniture is highlighted by rectilinear and rigorous shapes such as the rectangle, the square, the round and the oval, borrowed from neoclassical architecture. The base of the furniture incorporates elements of the antique style, notably the fluted foot or the square column. Elements are minimalist: symmetrical in shape, they mainly find their inspiration in nature and antique themes.

Example of Doric order architecture on the Parthenon in Athens, Greece.

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Cabinet-maker
(Active 1856-1920)

Writing Table

Stamped H. Nelson

France
Circa 1880

Kingwood, Gilded bronze, Porphyry

Height : 73,5 cm (28,9 in.) ; Width : 55,5 cm (21,8 in.) ; Depth : 37,5 cm (14,7 in.)

Charming Louis XV-inspired scalloped-shaped writing table in kingwood veneer and decorated with a fine gilded and chiseled bronze mount. The tray, surrounded by a gilded bronze mold, is covered with an Egyptian porphyry top. It opens to a belt drawer, revealing two inkwells, a sliding shelf and two secret lockers operated by push buttons, all covered with green morocco. It rests on four cabriole legs decorated with flowers at the corners and ending with leafy sabots.

Biography

Henri Nelson took over the workshop of his father Jean-Henri Nelson, cabinet-maker himself, in 1856, at 46, rue de la Madeleine. It was then transferred to 79, boulevard Hausmann then to 2 rue Tronson-du-Coudray, before settling permanently at 27, rue Pasquier in 1870. He was present at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900 where he received a gold medal for the quality of his work, as well as at the Franco-British Exhibition of 1908 in London and the Universal Exhibition of 1911 in Turin.

Bibliography

• Les ébénistes du XIXe siècle, Denise Ledoux-Lebard, Ed. de l’Amateur, 1984, p. 508

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Bronze-Caster
(1828-c.1890)

 (Attributed to)

Pair of neo-Greek Pedestals

France
Circa 1880

H.: 98,5 cm (38,8 in.) ; W.: 55 cm (21,6 in.) ; Diam. of the tray : 40 cm (15,7 in.)

Pair of patinated and gilded bronze turntable pedestals with for each of them, three paw feet, headed by stylized lion muzzles, ornated with beaded chains and joined by a fine foliate stretcher. The belt is adorned by a banded frieze cast in low-relief representing an  ancient scene : “The Battle of the Lapithes and the Centaurs”.

These pedestals can be associated with the “Vases de Bacchus”, presented by G. Servant at the 1867 Exposition Universelle, on which the similar ornamentation is applied.

(Reproduced in « Merveilles de l’Exposition Universelle de 1867 », Jules Mesnard, p°167)

Biography

Georges Emile Henri Servant (1828-c.1890), who took over his father in 1855 at their foundry, rue Vieille-du-Temple, in Paris, specialized in the production of neo-Egyptian style clocks, very popular in France since 1860’s, and also the making of Greek style decorative objects. He drew considerable attention to the high quality of his bronzes at the 1855 Paris Universal Exhibition and then at the 1862 London Exhibition. At this time Servant exported up to 40% of his production, principally to the United States, where for instance, his clocks were sold with great success by Louis Tiffany Inc. or Hamann & Roche of New York. But his success came really at the 1867 Paris Universal Exhibition, where he was awarded a gold medal for his neo-Greek and Egyptian works (Les Merveilles de l’Exposition Universelle de 1867, t. II, p° 165 & 167). He was even awarded in 1874 the « Ordre national de la Légion d’Honneur », France’s hightest official mark of recognition. Servant participated once again successfully at the 1878 Paris Universal Exhibition, where he not only exhibited vases and small bronze pieces of furniture, but was also a member of the jury for the class of bronze pieces of art. He finally retired shortly before the 1889 Paris Universal Exhibition.

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France
Circa 1890

Wood, Mother-Of-Pearl

Height : 50 cm (19,7 in.) ; Sides : 31 x 31 cm (12,2 x 12,2 in.)

Charming Oriental style corner wall shelf in carved wood with moucharabieh decoration and mother-of-pearl pastilles on the edge of the shelf.

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Cabinet-maker
(1811-1885)

J. Brandely                                     

Ornemanist
(active from 1867 to 1873)

Pair of Neo-Greek Pedestals

France
Circa 1867

Blackened pearwood, Galvanic bronze, Glazed earthenware

Height : 141 cm (55,5 in.) ; Width : 49 x 49 cm (19,3 x 19,3 in.)        

Exceptional pair of neo-Greek style pedestals, made in blackened pearwood, gilded galvanic bronze and glazed earthenware. The sheath-shaped shaft is decorated with rectangular plates in glazed earthenware with floral decoration and palmettes from the earthenware Manufacture Lebeuf, Milliet et Cie in Creil-Montereau framed by four female busts ending in a detached sheath. It is surmounted by motifs of palmettes, fans and feline heads in bronze supporting a square entablature framed by a frieze. The pedestals rest on a circular base decorated with a bronze frieze of palmettes, supported by four feet resting on a molded base adorned at the corners with friezes of oves.

related works

These ornaments are emblematic of the collaboration between the ornemanist J. Brandely and cabinet-maker C.-G. Diehl, and as found on a « table genre grec », a « bahut style grec » or even a « bijoutier de style grec », presented at the Universal Exhibition of 1867 in Paris, where they were commented by the art critic Jules Mesnard in his book : Les Merveilles de l’Exposition Universelle de 1867 : in particular concerning « les anneaux de l’entablement sont ciselés avec amour et l’on remarquera le dessin des pitons qui les portent ; il en est de même du rayonnement en éventail qui meuble la petite console de côté,… la tête d’un beau type grec, et d’une animation sereine, est coiffée d’une rangée de frisons sur le front. Le diadème est d’une finesse d’ornementation qui, si l’on pouvait le détacher, en ferait un véritable bijou » (tome II, p°133 & 149). 

A pair of pedestals by C.G. Diehl and the Manufacture Lebeuf, Milliet & Cie similar to ours is listed in the Documentary Service of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.

Biography

Arriving in Paris in about 1840, Charles-Guillaume Diehl (1811-1885) founded his cabinet making and decoration firm at 19 rue Michel-le-Comte in 1885. His workshops produced elegant little pieces of furniture in rosewood and thuja and novelties with bronze and porcelain embellishments (see « Les ébénistes du XIXème siècle », D. Ledoux-Lebard, Ed. de l’amateur, 1982, p.164). It was his luxury boxes, however (liqueur cellarettes, cigar cabinets, games boxes, cashmere cases, jewelry cases) which assured Diehl’s renown (see « l’Art en France sous le Second Empire », Exposition Grand-Palais, Paris, 1979, p.133). Already rewarded with a bronze medal at the Universal Exhibition of 1855 in Paris, he exhibited a jardinière with china columns and a liqueur cabinet at the Industrial Arts Exhibition in 1861.
In collaboration with the designer Jean Brandely (active from 1867 until 1873), Diehl renovated his decorative repertory and created astonishing pieces of furniture in the Grecian style which had a dazzling success at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1867, where his cabinets also won a silver medal. Certain motifs were so typical of Diehl’s work that they received extensive commentary by the art critic J. Mesnard in his book « Les Merveilles de l’Exposition Universal de 1867 » (vol. II, pp. 133 & 149). He writes of a table of which « the pendant bearing hooks and the fan shaped radiating motif which ornaments the entablature are engraved with love » (p. 133) and a jewelry case where « The head in fine Grecian style makes up the essential part of the fine gilt bronze ornementation » (p. 149).
For this Universal Exhibition Diehl also formed a partnership with two famous sculptors : Emile Guillemin (1841-1907) who carved the relief for a mahogany sideboard with galvanic gilt bronzes (Orsay Museum, Paris, Inv. O.A.O. 992) and Emmanuel Frémiet (1824-1910) who executed the low relief for a cedar medal cabinet with marquetry and silver plated bronzes (Orsay Museum, Paris, Inv. O.A. 10440). Diehl was again rewarded with a medal of honour at the Union Central Exhibition of 1869 and a progress medal at the Universal Exhibition in Vienna in 1873 (Sideboard in blackened pear wood and lemon wood with galvanic bronzes, designed by J. Brandely with a low relief by E. Guillemin, Orsay Museum, Paris, Inv. O.A.O. 336). Showered with praise by the critics, Diehl is considered as one of the most innovating artists of the 19th Century. His final appearance was at the 1878 Universal Exhibition in Paris where he presented outside the competition, his most recent creations, including a work table in marquetry which with its naturalistic grasshopper motif anticipated « Art Nouveau » (Musée de l’Ecole de Nancy, Nancy).

In order to compete with the English production, the Creil (Oise) and Montereau (Seine-et-Marne) manufactures began producing « English style » white paste earthenware as soon as the eighteenth century. At Montereau, English potters refugees in France shared their skills with Louis Leboeuf (1792-1854). Under the Second Empire, technical innovations, added to the enthusiasm of the middle classes in the decorative arts, provided a production of fine standard, more accomplished and more diverse. The white clay was then relayed by the opaque porcelain, then whiter, harder and tougher. With the merger of Manufactures of Montereau and Creil in 1840, Lebeuf went into partnership with Milliet (marks « Lebeuf Milliet and Co. » from 1840 to 1874, followed by « Lebeuf and Co. » from 1875 to 1876). Both partners were constantly seeking to discover new and various techniques and patterns of decoration. This golden age lasted until the early twentieth century as the economic crisis appeared. A restructuring process was started and Montereau was preferred to Creil. The takeover by the Choisy Manufacture in 1920 continued the mass production until 1955, when Montereau definitely closed down its workshops.

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France
Circa 1880

Mahogany, Wood marquetry, Gilded bronze

Height : 80 cm (31,5 in.) ; Length : 157 cm (61,8 in.) ; Depth : 79 cm (31,1 in.)

Beautiful ceremonial table in mahogany, mahogany veneer, black stained wood and gilt bronze. The top with symmetrical decoration presents an important marquetry decoration of oak leaves, garlands and plant scrolls, embellished at the corners with fleur-de-lys, all surrounded by a frieze of acanthus leaves in gilt bronze. The belt, adorned on all sides with a gilded bronze interlacing frieze, presents at the front and at the back a radiating mask surrounded by a quiver and a torch on a central recess in black stained wood. It rests on four fluted rudent legs with asparagus tips surmounted by a capital of Ionic inspiration, ending with a sabot formed of water leaves.

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Cabinet-maker
(1830-1907)

(attributed to)

Pair of Neo-Renaissance vitrines

France
Circa 1860

Walnut, Breccia marble

Height : 108 cm (42,5 in.) ; Width : 113 cm (44,5 in.) ; Depth : 50 cm (19,7 in.)

Very beautiful pair of neo-Renaissance vitrines in richly carved walnut, with three glazed sides framed by a relief frieze. Each opening to a drawer decorated with interlacing on the belt, and to a front door, they have two glass shelves. The uprights are composed of a couple of terms ending in a sheath, supporting a capital with acanthus leaves. They rest on lion paws and are topped with a green breccia molded marble top.

Biography

The Fourdinois company was founded in 1835 by Alexandre-Georges Fourdinois (1799-1871). The Universal Exhibition held in London in 1851 was undoubtedly their first great artistic and public success. Winning the Great medal for a neo-Renaissance buffet triggered a competition among other cabinetmakers, as the press was unanimously greeting their success. His son Henri-Auguste (1830-1907) was taught design by the architect Duban, then by the silversmith Morel in London, before working with the bronze founder Paillard. He joined the firm in 1860. His talent and the high quality of his designs drew attention at the 1862 World Exhibition in London, where the jury awarded him two medals for « Excellence in Composition and Execution ». Henri-Auguste, now sole in charge, brought the firm to the summit of its achievements at the 1867 Universal Exhibition in Paris by winning the Grand Prix (classes 14 and 15) as well as at the 1878 Exhibition. The 1862-1880 period marks truly the peak for the Fourdinois house, which remains for many cabinet-makers, whether French, English or American, an example to follow.

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France
Circa 1780

Height : 106,5 cm (41,9 in.) ; Length : 155 cm (61 in.) ; Depth : 38 cm (14,9 in.)
Opening – Height : 83,5 cm (32,8 in.) ; Length : 122,5 cm (48,2 in.)

Beautiful Louis XVI period Chimney mantelpiece carved in white Carrara marble. The lintel, decorated with volutes of acanthus leaves, ends with a framed rosette above the jambs adorned with a detached rudent fluted column. The chimney insert and the tablet are underlined by a frieze.

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Japan – France
Circa 1880

Lacquer, Gilded bronze, Iron

Very pretty serving table with two rectangular trays composed of two Japanese panels from the Edo period in powdered lacquer using the Maki-e technique.

The upper tray, decorated with an openwork interlacing gallery, is decorated with trees and bamboos in a lake landscape, and the lower tray, also representing a landscape, is decorated with a cruciform kamon, symbol of the Shimazu clan. Two blackened iron double uprights, underlined with decorative bronze in the form of foliage, connect the trays, and end in geometric volutes.

The use of Japanese lacquer panels, especially from coffers, to decorate furniture was fashionable from the end of the 18th century. Japanese lacquer most often represents landscapes of great simplicity, birds or very sober still lifes. Many cabinetmakers, among the most famous, made lacquer furniture. This fashion continued throughout the 19th century, notably with the development of winter gardens.

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

Flat Desk with Espagnolettes

Stamped twice A BEURDELEY A PARIS on the crosspieces.

France
Circa 1890

Lacquer, Gilded bronze, Leather

Height : 78 cm (30,7 in.) ; Length : 132 cm (51,9 in.) ; Depth : 72 cm (28,3 in.)

Elegant Louis XV style double-side desk in lacquered wood and gilded bronze. It is adorned on all sides, in foliated bronze cartouches, with a decoration of birds and golden landscapes painted on a black background in the style of Japan. Covered with a top sheathed with black leather and surrounded by a mold, it opens on one side with three drawers. The all rests on four cabriole feet adorned at the angles with curly espagnolettes, and ends in leafy sabots.

This desk is to be linked to the work of Charles Cressent (1685-1768), cabinet-maker of the Crown.

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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Cabinet-Maker
(Active from 1880 to 1895)

L. Messagé

Designer
(1842-1901)

(Attributed to)

Rare Pair of Vitrines

France
Circa 1885

Height: 150 cm (59 in.); Width: 145 cm (57 in.); Depth: 44 cm (17,3 in.)

Rare pair of Louis XV style curved shape vitrines in kingwood veneer and gilded bronze. Glazed on all sides, they open with two doors framed by gilded and chiseled Rocaille style foliated bronze mounts. Resting on four cabriole legs ending with lion’s paws, the whole is covered by a « brèche de Benou » marble top. This model was probably designed by L. Messagé.

Biographies

Joseph-Emmanuel Zwiener was born in Germany in 1849. In 1880 he sets up his extensive workshops in rue de la Roquette in Paris where he creates many original pieces of furniture. He imitated practically every style, ranging from ‘’Boulle’’ to Louis XVI and including extraordinary personal interpretations of the Louis XV ‘’exuberant’’ style. He participated in the 1889 Universal Exhibition, held in Paris, and was awarded the gold medal for his remarkable copy of that most famous piece of furniture, Louis XV’s desk. The catalogue of the exhibition included a wonderful elegy qualifying the work as perfect : « No criticism what-so-ever could be made ». As that other famous cabinet-maker François Linke, Zwiener had most of his bronzes modelled by Léon Messagé whose work was considered as being of the best possible quality.

Léon Messagé is a renowned designer and sculptor who integrated in his ornaments related to the Rocaille asymmetry, new lines and shapes announcing the “Art Nouveau” style. But even though, Messagé found inspiration with these 18th century artists, such as Nicolas Pineau or J. A. Meissonier, he didn’t simply copy their work and showed great originality, even extravagance, with some designs contained in “Cahier des dessins et croquis style Louis XV”. He realized numerous sketches on grey paper before the execution of a reduced or life sized model of his ornaments, made of wax or terra-cotta. From 1885, Léon Messagé started working with important Parisian cabinet-makers such Joseph-Emmanuel Zwiener (1849-1895) and François Linke (1855-1946). François Linke developed his personal style, with such talent and quality that he was named during the 1900 Universal Exhibition the “Linke Style”. His tremendous success and his particular formal imagination came from his association with the designer Léon Messagé. The mutual influences concerning these three artists can be concretely observed in numerous realizations.

Bibliography

Catalogue de l’Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1889.

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France
Circa 1890

Height : 32 cm (12,5 in.) ; Length : 158 cm (62,2 in.) ; Depth : 20 cm (7,8 in.)

Amusing coat-hanger in carved wood representing a Chinese Magot looking over a fence.

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Cabinet-maker
(1830-1907)
(attributed to)

Exceptional Renaissance style Cabinet

France
1893

Height : 240 cm (94,5 in.) ; Width : 124 cm (48,8 in.) ; Depth : 56 cm (22 in.)

A walnut cupboard, elaborately carved throughout, dated « 1893 » on the crest. The upper section with a pair of cherubs at the center of a balustrade ornamented with two-handled urns, two architectonic doors below, carved with lady and gentleman in niches surrounded by extensive carving with classical motifs. The lower section with two drawers above a standing female caryatid support at each front corner. The all reposing on four gadrooned round feet.

Biography

The Fourdinois company was founded in 1835 by Alexandre-Georges Fourdinois (1799-1871). The Universal Exhibition held in London in 1851 was undoubtedly their first great artistic and public success. Winning the Great medal for a neo-Renaissance buffet triggered a competition among other cabinetmakers, as the press was unanimously greeting their success. His son Henri-Auguste (1830-1907) was taught design by the architect Duban, then by the silversmith Morel in London, before working with the bronze founder Paillard. He joined the firm in 1860. His talent and the high quality of his designs drew attention at the 1862 World Exhibition in London, where the jury awarded him two medals for « Excellence in Composition and Execution ». Henri-Auguste, now sole in charge, brought the firm to the summit of its achievements at the 1867 Universal Exhibition in Paris by winning the Grand Prix (classes 14 and 15) as well as at the 1878 Exhibition. The 1862-1880 period marks truly the peak for the Fourdinois house, which remains for many cabinet-makers, whether French, English or American, an example to follow.

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Probably Italy
Circa 1890

Total height : 264 cm (103,9 in.)
Console – Height : 98 cm (38,5 in.) ; Width : 173 cm (68,1 in.) ; Depth : 50,5 cm (19,8 in.)
Mirror – Height : 166 cm (65,3 in.) ; Width : 140 cm (55,1 in.) ; Depth : 17 cm (6,6 in.)

Rare neo-Pompeian console in painted wood with its matching mirror. The set is completely covered with a painted decoration on a red background underlined by friezes with floral motifs and interlacing. The console is adorned on its tray with a cartouche framed by two mythological sea creatures, olive branches and a beaded garland. It rests on four curved feet decorated in the angles with olive branches.

This console is probably the work of an artist inspired by what he saw during a Grand Tour. It was at first a long educational trip in Europe made mainly by young men from the highest social classes of European society. This practice emerged around the middle of the 16th century and reached its peak in the 18th century. The main destinations were Italy, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland. Young people would buy art and antiques, and visit ancient Roman ruins as well the recently discovered Herculanum and Pompeii. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Grand Tour was made by artists, art amateurs, collectors and writers.

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Cabinet-maker
(1830-1907)
(attributed to)

Exceptional Pair of Armchairs

France
Circa 1870

Height : 113,5 cm (44,7 in.) ; Width : 69 cm (27,1 in.) ; Depth : 60 cm (23,6 in.)

Important pair of armchairs made in solid rosewood with a flat back in « chapeau de gendarme » centered with a carved and foliated cartouche, joining padded scroll armrests carved with acanthus leaves. Standing on two characteristic Renaissance style fluted forelegs of the Fourdinois « savoir-faire », and « sabre » back feet.

Biography

The Fourdinois company was founded in 1835 by Alexandre-Georges Fourdinois (1799-1871). The Universal Exhibition held in London in 1851 was undoubtedly their first great artistic and public success. Winning the Great medal for a neo-Renaissance buffet triggered a competition among other cabinetmakers, as the press was unanimously greeting their success. His son Henri-Auguste (1830-1907) was taught design by the architect Duban, then by the silversmith Morel in London, before working with the bronze founder Paillard. He joined the firm in 1860. His talent and the high quality of his designs drew attention at the 1862 World Exhibition in London, where the jury awarded him two medals for « Excellence in Composition and Execution ». Henri-Auguste, now sole in charge, brought the firm to the summit of its achievements at the 1867 Universal Exhibition in Paris by winning the Grand Prix (classes 14 and 15) as well as at the 1878 Exhibition. The 1862-1880 period marks truly the peak for the Fourdinois house, which remains for many cabinet-makers, whether French, English or American, an example to follow.

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Cabinet-makers
(late 19^th century)

A Régence style display-cabinet

Signed Constantin Potheau, ébéniste à Paris.

Circa 1895

Height : 275 cm (108,2 in.) ; Width : 160 cm (63 in.) ;
Upper part depth : 48 cm (18,8 in.) / inside : 42 cm (16,5 in.)
Lower part depth : 60 cm (23,6 in.)

A very fine Régence style two-part display-cabinet standing on a plinth, surmounted by an arched pediment. Executed in carved walnut, richly decorated with motifs, such as lambrequins, acanthuses, lattice and rosaces. Opening with four double opening system doors, fitted inside with shelves and drawers. This specific system makes easier and wider the opening; the doors can be folded along the sides.

Biography

Georges and Constantin Potheau took over the company led by Charmois and Lemarinier, and installed their workshops at the n° 21, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Antoine in Paris. “Potheau Brothers” were quite renowned for their fine furnishings, simple but luxurious. Remarked by the jury at the 1889 Paris Universal Exhibition, both of them were awarded a Silver medal for a superb carved fireplace. From 1894 onwards, Constantin ran alone the company.

Bibliography

Les ébénistes du XIXe siècle, Ledoux-Lebard, Ed. de l’amateur, Paris, 1989, p° 530.
Exposition Universelle Internationale de 1889, Rapport du Jury international, Groupe III, Classe 17, Mobilier, p.11.

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Cabinet-maker
(1817-1877)

E. Lievre

Designer
(1828-1886)
(attributed to)

Neo-Renaissance Cabinet

France
Circa 1870

Signed twice on the lock  P. SORMANI 10, r Charlot Paris

Height : 187 cm (73,6 in.) ; Width : 116 cm (45,6 in.) ; Depth : 54,5 cm (21,4 in.)

Rare neo-Renaissance cabinet in mahogany, carved boxwood and Portor marble, adorned with chiseled and gilded bronze.

The upper, part, surmounted by a frieze of posts and marble cabochons, consists of a central door decorated with a carved panel representing the birth of Venus, framed by two pairs of ringed and fluted columns with Corinthians capitals in gilded bronze revealing two doors with secret opening. Two drawers with lion’s head shaped handles and a central drawer decorated with tracery in gilded bronze complete the upper part of this cabinet.

In the lower part, two drawers on the belt with diamond moldings surmount two doors decorated with chiseled bronze medallions representing the profiles of King Charles VII of France and his mistress Agnès Sorel, framed by spandrels on a foliage background. Three detached carved uprights topped with gilded bronze foliage frame the panels.

The whole rests on five feet.

related work

The attribution of the design to Edouard Lièvre is made in comparison with several Renaissance style items from the sale of his goods following his death Succession de Feu Edouard Lièvre, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 21-24 Mars 1887 including :

Biography

Paul Sormani, born in Italy in 1817, dead in 1877, specialized at first in the making of small furniture. He installed 1854 his workshops at the n°114 rue du Temple in Paris. The Sormani company knew then a great success and was much in favour with the Imperial Family as well as with the Paris high society. Empress Eugénie furnished then her palaces in the Louis XV and Louis XVI styles, with some of Sormani’s creations. Presenting his work at all important fairs, such the 1849 Exposition of the Industrial Products or the Universal Exhibitions from 1855 until 1867, Sormani was then honored by jurys for his « production of high standard quality » and won the highest awards. In 1867, by the time of the great Universal Exhibition, Sormani enlarged and transfered his workshops to the n°10 rue Charlot. When Paul Sormani died in 1877, his wife and son took over the business and from this date onwards pieces are normally signed « Veuve Sormani & Fils à Paris ». After World War I, they went into partnership with Thiébaux and the company premises were then installed at n°134 boulevard Haussmann until 1934.

Edouard Lièvre (1829-1886) studied under the painter Thomas Couture (1815-1879), one of the more conspicuous artists in the circle of the Empress Eugenie. E. Lièvre soon devoted himself, however, to the art of furniture design. A talented ornamentalist, marked by the eclecticism typical of the Second Empire, Lièvre knew how to avail himself of skillful collaborators in order to create pieces in various styles: Renaissance, Louis 16^th or Oriental, which last were part of the great artistic movement in fashion since the 1860’s: the Japanese style named also Aesthetic Movement. they recreated an imaginary Far East adapted to decorate Western reception rooms. As an Interior decorator Lièvre also matched his luxurious and refined furniture with bronzes, ceramics and even fabrics. This Oriental exoticism, which only the richest could afford, appealed to bankers, judges, artists and famous courtesans as well as the Royal and Princely families. After the death of Edouard Lièvre, the greater part of his models, sketches and cabinet designs were bought by art publishers such as « l’Escalier de Cristal » or by Ferdinand Barbedienne, thus giving them the right to reproduce Lièvre’s furniture with their own stamp (see « Ventes de la succession Lièvre »,  Hotel Drouot, 27 fevrier 1890).

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Cabinet-maker
(1849-1895)

Beautiful table

France
Circa 1890

Height : 74 cm (29,1 in.) ; Width : 89 cm (35 in.) ; Depth : 56,5 cm (22,2 in.)

Charming serpentine shaped Louis XV style table in rosewood and kingwood veneer, with an elegant “bois de bout” floral marquetry on the tray and opening with two drawers. Rich gilded bronze ornamentation of flowers and branches framing the drawers and on the angles. The back is similarly decorated and with two false drawers. Resting on four scalloped foliate-cast feet.

The work on this table is characteristic of Zwiener’s workshops for its quality and finesse and of L. Messagé for the design.

Biography

Joseph-Emmanuel Zwiener was born in Germany in 1849. In 1880 he set up his extensive workshops in rue de la Roquette in Paris where he created many original pieces of furniture. He immitated practically every style, ranging from “Boulle” to “Louis XVI” and including extraordinary personal interpretations of the ‘’exhuberent’’ Louis XV style. His unique style won Zwiener the gold medal at the 1882 exhibition of the Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. One of the judges, René Ménard, remarked that « if Mr. Zwiener had limited himself to literal reproductions, he wouldn’t have attracted the attention of the jury so strongly. But alongside his very skillful copies, he has shown us works inspired by his own imagination ». He then participated in the 1889 Universal Exhibition, held in Paris, and was awarded the gold medal for his remarkable copy of that most famous piece of furniture, Louis XV’s desk. The catalogue of the exhibition included a wonderful elegy qualifying the work as perfect : « No criticism what-so-ever could be made ». As that other famous cabinet-maker François Linke (1855-1946), Zwiener had most of his bronzes modelled by Léon Messagé (1842-1901) whose work was considered as being of the best possible quality. Zwiener was active until 1895, when Jean-Henri Jansen (1854-1928) purchased his business and stock. Operating under the name of “Zwiener Jansen Successeur”, Jansen continued to faithfully produce Zwiener’s creations, using the original models and lavishing the utmost care on these “meubles de luxe”.

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France
Circa 1880

Height : 99 cm (38,9 in.) ; Width : 64 cm (25,2 in.) ; Depth : 56 cm (22 in.)

Beautiful pair of Transition style armchairs « à la Reine » and « à châssis », in carved and gilded wood and decorated with a flowery lampas by the Maison Tassinari & Chatel, Lyon silk manufacturer. The rounded back and the curved belt are adorned with interlacing friezes. The whole rests on four console legs ending with a winding.

Related work

These armchairs are inspired by 6 armchairs stamped M. Gourdin, circa 1768. This set bear the crowned mark EU and the inventory numbers 8950 to 8954, for the Eu castle under Louis-Philippe. A bergère armchair bearing the same stamp is in the museum Sandelin in Saint-Omer.

Wallace Collection, Londres (Inv F 179)

Biography

Michel Gourdin (1724-1797), who was made maître menuisier in 1752, comes from a prestigious dynasty of menuisiers under the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI : his father, Jean (1690-1764), his brother Jean-Baptiste (1723-1781) and himself. The two brothers decided not to continue their father’s workshop but each one founded his own workshop, depeening their skills and specialities.

Among his famous customers, Marie-Josèphe of Saxe, the Marshal of Contades, the duchess of Charost and the marquis of Poyanne bought furniture from him.

Bibliography

Bill G.B. Pallot, L’Art du siège au XVIIIe siècle en Franc, A.C.R.-Gismondi Editeurs, 1987, p.177

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Cabinet-maker & Bronze-caster
(Active from 1853 until 1918)
(attributed to)

Pair of Display Pedestals

France
Circa 1890

Height : 140 cm (55 in.) ; Width : 43 cm (17 in.) ; Depth : 35 cm (13,7 in.)

Elegant pair of Louis XV inspired display pedestals. They are decorated on three sides with a beautiful marquetry of stylized flowers in “bois de bout”, made in kingwood on a rosewood background, in cartouches with leafy moldings in chiseled and gilded bronze. They rest on four leafy feet ending in lion paws, and are topped with a purple molded Breccia marble.

Biography

The firm of Théodore Millet was founded in 1853 and installed in Paris, at N.11 rue Jacques-Cœur, then N.23 Boulevard Beaumarchais in 1902. A very talented specialist in 18^th Century reproductions, Millet produced furniture and artistic bronzes of the highest quality. He was one of the few cabinet-makers to obtain authorization from the Château de Versailles to make in 1902 a replica of Queen Marie-Antoinette’s great jewel cabinet. As an artist of great merit and Specialising in « meubles et bronzes d’art, genre ancien et moderne », Millet obtained the highest rewards such as the Gold medal at the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1889 and the Grand Prize at the Universal Exhibition of 1900. The firm lasted until 1918.

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Cabinet-maker
(1817-1877)

Charming table

France
Circa 1870

Height : 72 cm (28,3 in.) ; Width : 88,5 cm (34,8 in.) ; Depth : 45 cm (17,7 in.)

Signed on the keylock P. SORMANI PARIS 10 rue Charlot

Charming Louis XV style table, opening with three drawers, veneered with satinwood and kingwood. The waved rectangular tray, adorned with a floral bois-de-bout marquetry, is circled by a gilded bronze mold. It rests on four cabriole legs surmounted by a gilt-bronze mount and ending on cast feet.

Biography

Paul Sormani, born in Italy in 1817, dead in 1877, specialized at first in the making of small furniture. He installed 1854 his workshops at the n°114 rue du Temple in Paris. The Sormani company knew then a great success and was much in favour with the Imperial Family as well as with the Paris high society. Empress Eugénie furnished then her palaces in the Louis XV and Louis XVI styles, with some of Sormani’s creations. Presenting his work at all important fairs, such the 1849 Exposition of the Industrial Products or the Universal Exhibitions from 1855 until 1867, Sormani was then honored by jurys for his « production of high standard quality » and won the highest awards. In 1867, by the time of the great Universal Exhibition, Sormani enlarged and transfered his workshops to the n°10 rue Charlot. When Paul Sormani died in 1877, his wife and son took over the business and from this date onwards pieces are normally signed « Veuve Sormani & Fils à Paris ». After World War I, they went into partnership with Thiébaux and the company premises were then installed at n°134 boulevard Haussmann until 1934.

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

Reading table

France
Circa 1885

Height.: 72 cm (28,3 in.) ; Width : 66 cm (25,9 in.) ; Depth : 42,5 cm (16,7 in.)

Charming Louis XV style reading table. It opens on one side by a compartmental drawer and by a sliding shelf, forming a writing board and being able to switch to a reading position. Its tray in amaranth and satine veneer is circled by a border. Beautiful garniture of chiseled and gilded bronze composed of clasp and sinuous handles. It rests on four cabriole legs adorned with leafy falls ending with hooves.

Easily mobile thanks to its handles, the discreet bronzes with harmonious proportions, the contrast veneer and the elegant lines with slightly curved feet evoke the creations of B.V.R.B. This talented cabinetmaker had a preference for small coffee tables, jewelry boxes and writing tables that he marked with an ormolu Rocaille clasp.

Related works

Writing table attributed to B.V.R.B, circa 1750, Musée Cognac-Jay

Biography

Henry Dasson executed in his Paris workshop sumptuous copies of royal XVIIIth century models and some pieces of his own modified XVIIIth 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 a Louis XVI style table, all made of bronze and considered as a «chasing masterpiece», and 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.

Bernard II Van Risen Burgh, master around 1735 is the most famous of the B.V.R.B dynasty, cabinet-makers of Dutch origin. He worked for rich customers, including the Royal familyIl a travaillé pour une riche clientèle ; y compris la famille royale through furniture dealers such as Hébert, Lazare Duvaux ou Simon Philippe Poirier. He created furniture in the Rocaille theme, Il réalise des meubles dans l’esprit rocaille, which are characterized by a great sense of proportion, the elegance of the curves,. His works are located in many museums such as Versailles, the Louvre, the National Gallery or the Metropolitan Museum.

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Designer and Art Objects’ Editor
(Active from 1799 until 1885)
(attributed to)

Japanese style Showcase

France
Circa 1880

Height : 275 cm (108.2 in.) ; Width : 167 cm (65.7 in.) ; Depth : 70 cm (27.6 in.)

Rare walnut and gilded bronze aesthetic movement showcase, opening in its upper part by two beveled glass doors framed by brass moldings, in its lower part by two door panels in carved walnut decorated with blooming branches and gilded bronze ornaments representing dragons and birds. The sides are carved, like wicker woven.

This showcase is topped by an important carved and gilded walnut cornice depicting a Fô Dog in its center, with a protective power, and rests on elephant head with overtuned trunk shaped feet.

Related work

This type of elephant head with overtuned trunk shaped feet is a characteristic of the Maison Giroux, which can be found on many objects they produced. Aesthetic movement cabinet, signed Maison Alphonse Giroux – Paris, Private Collection

Biography

Alphonse Giroux and Company, famous curiosity and luxury goods shop was situated in Paris, at No. 7 rue du Coq-Saint-Honoré and in business from the time of the Consulate until the end of the Second Empire. The company was founded by Francois-Simon-Alphonse and continued in 1838 by his two sons, Alphonse-Gustave (1810-1886) and André (1801-1879). The father became a close associate of the royal family and specialized in the manufacture of refined items for gifts. Kings Louis XVIII and then Charles X were both supplied with gifts for « The Children of France » by Giroux.

Making progressively small furniture, they were mentioned for the first time in 1837 in the class « cabinet-makers » in the Paris Almanach. It was Alphonse-Gustave, however, who really expanded the activities of the firm as is testified by the report of the jury at the 1839 Products of Industry Exhibition awarding him another silver medal. Alphonse was also quick to participate in the famous and soon figured among the best in the luxury goods business. After buying a writing desk at the 1855 Universal Exhibition Napoleon III^rd bought several other pieces of furniture, candelabras and clocks from Giroux for the Compiègne Palace. In 1857 Alphonse Giroux transferred his shop to No. 43, boulevard des Capucines where he continued to do business until 1867, when he ceded the company to Duvinage and Harinkouck.

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Cabinet-maker
(1808-1889)

L.C. Sevin

Ornemanist
(1821-1888)

F. Barbedienne

Bronze-caster
(1810-1892)

Very Important Neo-Renaissance Dining Room Set

France
Circa 1878

Walnut, gilded bronze, “brèche St Maximin” marble, green Campan and “grand mélange” marble.

Display sideboard : Height : 285 cm (112 in.)  ; Width : 215 cm (84,6 in) ; Depth : 70 cm (27,5 in.)
Table (without extension) : Height : 76 cm (29,9 in.) ; Width : 170 cm (66,9 in.) ; Depth : 120 cm (47,2 in.) / Extensions (x 2) : Width : 45 cm (17,7 in.) ; Depth : 120 cm (47,2 in.)
Dresser : Height : 180 cm (70,8 in.) ; Width : 215 cm (84,6 in.) ; Depth : 65 cm (25,6 in.)
Chairs : Height : 114 cm (44,8 in.) ; Width : 48 cm (18,9 in.) ; Depth : 45 cm (17,7 in.)

Woodwork attributed to Maison Meynard (1808-1889), Meynard Fils; ormolu mounting by Ferdinand Barbedienne (1810-1892) from works by Louis-Constant Sévin (1821-1888).

Exhibition: Maison Meynard, Frager successeur, Salon des industries du mobilier, 1902. Maison Meynard has exhibited at the Universal Exhibition in 1878 a two-part Neo-Renaissance sideboard adorned with gilded bronze.

This rare Neo-Renaissance dining room furniture by the woodwork factory Meynard is representative of the taste for historical style in the second half of the 19th century.
Consisting of a monumental display sideboard, a dresser, a table and eight chairs, it is made of sculpted walnut, adorned with gilded bronze by Ferdinand Barbedienne, probably inspired by drawings of Constant Sévin.
This furniture is unified by repeated patterns, “brèche St Maximin” marble columns with gilded bronze capitals, ormolu medallions representing Renaissance inspired faces in profile, an ormolu faun mascaron and ribbed vases with ionic capitals.

• Display Sideboard
  

Important two part, Neo-Renaissance style, walnut sideboard; the lower part comprising four doors embellished with low reliefs in gilt bronze alternating with four detached columns of “brèche St Maximin” marble with Corinthian capitals. The upper part comprises two doors ornamented with gilt bronze low reliefs cast by Ferdinand Barbedienne, representing two nymphs after those sculpted by Jean Goujon in 1547 for the Fountain of the Innocents in Paris. On each side gilt bronze caryatids sheathed in Campan marble and recesses decorated with chains of fruit emphasize the structure of the piece. A pediment bearing the gilt bronze mask of a faun completes the ensemble.

• Dresser

The dresser is compartmented in a tripartite lower part, divided by marble and gilt bronze columns.
Two doors, adorned with gilt bronze Florentine Renaissance style medallions, flank the glass case in the centre.  Three sculpted frieze drawers support the top.
The upper part is divided in three panels: in niches on each side two gilt bronze statuettes surround the central gilt bronze pattern.

Statues represent two women draped in the antic style, one holding a palm, the other a cornucopia. Two sculpted chimeras finished the décor on each side. The semi-circular pediment surmounting the upper part presents a gilt bronze faun mascaron.

• Dining room table and chairs

The walnut dining room table, and its three leaves are standing on four richly decorated legs ending in lion claws, doubled with marble columns topped by gilt bronze Corinthian capitals. A strut supporting three ribbed balusters and two ionic capitals vases links the legs.

Eight chairs complete this Neo-Renaissance dining room. The base rests on four legs, the anterior baluster and capital legs and the posterior square section legs, linked by a strut. The back of chairs is adorned with a rich sculpted décor and flanked by two capitals columns. The lower part is decorated with an openwork sculpted vegetal ornament. The wood pediment is ornamented with a central polished marble cabochon.

Biography

The renowned firm of Meynard was established at 50 Faubourg-Saint-Antoine in Paris in 1812. Created by Guillaume Meynard, the company became famous under the name of Father-and-Son Meynard when in 1833, Guillaume-Mathieu, the eldest child of Guillaume Meynard joined him. His father left his son alone managing the family-owned business from 1848. Guillaume-Mathieu was joined by his son Léon-Guillaume in 1866. The firm was then called Meynard and Son. Under the same name, Léon-Guillaume, then representing the third generation, took leadership from 1873 until 1889 when he sold his business to Eugène Frager. After winning numerous awards at the Products of Industry Exhibitions and later at the Universal Exhibitions (a gold medal won in Paris in 1878), the Frager furnishing and decoration company perpetuated the excellent reputation of the firm by being awarded a silver medal at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1889.

The low reliefs and other bronze ornaments of this sideboard, of very high standard quality, were cast in the workshops of Ferdinand Barbedienne after designs by Constant Sévin. Those designs had been already used successfully on a bookcase exhibited by Sévin and Barbedienne at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1867. Ferdinand Barbedienne (1810-1892) started one of the most famous 19th century artistic bronze casting companies. In addition to his personal production, he worked for famous artists such as Clésinger and Carrière-Belleuse. These artists production – as illustrated in their catalogue – varied from busts and ornamental sculptures such as clocks, candlesticks, sconces to decorations for furniture, as shown on our sideboard. Barbedienne’s production was always highly esteemed and he was, himself admired by contemporary art critics who compared him during the 1878 Universal Exhibition to a “prince of industry and the king of bronze-casting”.

Louis-Constant Sévin (1821-1888) designed silver-smith’s objects for famous firms like Denière and Froment-Meurice, before working for Barbedienne as sculptor-ornemanist since 1855. Sévin’s works are considerable, he designed furniture bronzes for the « hôtel de La Païva » and was particularly remarked at the London Exhibition in 1862, where he was awarded a medal. The most extraordinary object designed by Sévin for Barbedienne, was a Renaissance style gilded bronze monumental clock, for which Sévin won a gold medal at the Universal Exhibition in 1878.

Bibliography

L’univers des bronzes, Yves Devaux, Ed. Pygmalion, Paris, 1978.

Exposition Universelle de 1878, Rapport sur les bronzes d’art, Groupe III, Classe 25, p° 26.

Les ébénistes du XIXe siècle, Ledoux-Lebard, Ed. de l’amateur, Paris, 1989, p° 209 & 481.

« Le salon des arts du mobilier », La Revue de l’art ancien et moderne, Paris, impr. Georges Petit, t. XII, juillet-décembre 1902, pp.185-186.

Salon des industries du mobilier, Grand Palais des Champs Elysées, juillet-novembre 1902, organisé par la chambre syndicale de l’ameublement, Paris, impr. Wattier frères, 1902

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Cabinet-maker
(1808-1889)

L.C. Sevin

Ornemanist
(1821-1888)

F. Barbedienne

Bronze-caster
(1810-1892)

Very Important Neo-Renaissance Dining Room Set

France
Circa 1878

Woodwork attributed to Maison Meynard (1808-1889), Meynard Fils; ormolu mounting by Ferdinand Barbedienne (1810-1892) from works by Louis-Constant Sévin (1821-1888).

Walnut, gilded bronze, “brèche St Maximin” marble, green Campan and “grand mélange” marble.

Exhibition: Maison Meynard, Frager successeur, Salon des industries du mobilier, 1902. Maison Meynard has exhibited at the Universal Exhibition in 1878 a two-part Neo-Renaissance sideboard adorned with gilded bronze.

This rare Neo-Renaissance dining room furniture by the woodwork factory Meynard is representative of the taste for historical style in the second half of the 19th century.
Consisting of a monumental display sideboard, a dresser, a table and eight chairs, it is made of sculpted walnut, adorned with gilded bronze by Ferdinand Barbedienne, probably inspired by drawings of Constant Sévin.
This furniture is unified by repeated patterns, “brèche St Maximin” marble columns with gilded bronze capitals, ormolu medallions representing Renaissance inspired faces in profile, an ormolu faun mascaron and ribbed vases with ionic capitals.

• Dining room table and chairs

The walnut dining room table, and its three leaves are standing on four richly decorated legs ending in lion claws, doubled with marble columns topped by gilt bronze Corinthian capitals. A strut supporting three ribbed balusters and two ionic capitals vases links the legs.

Eight chairs complete this Neo-Renaissance dining room. The base rests on four legs, the anterior baluster and capital legs and the posterior square section legs, linked by a strut. The back of chairs is adorned with a rich sculpted décor and flanked by two capitals columns. The lower part is decorated with an openwork sculpted vegetal ornament. The wood pediment is ornamented with a central polished marble cabochon.

• Display Sideboard
  

Important two part, Neo-Renaissance style, walnut sideboard; the lower part comprising four doors embellished with low reliefs in gilt bronze alternating with four detached columns of “brèche St Maximin” marble with Corinthian capitals. The upper part comprises two doors ornamented with gilt bronze low reliefs cast by Ferdinand Barbedienne, representing two nymphs after those sculpted by Jean Goujon in 1547 for the Fountain of the Innocents in Paris. On each side gilt bronze caryatids sheathed in Campan marble and recesses decorated with chains of fruit emphasize the structure of the piece. A pediment bearing the gilt bronze mask of a faun completes the ensemble.

• Dresser

The dresser is compartmented in a tripartite lower part, divided by marble and gilt bronze columns.
Two doors, adorned with gilt bronze Florentine Renaissance style medallions, flank the glass case in the centre.  Three sculpted frieze drawers support the top.
The upper part is divided in three panels: in niches on each side two gilt bronze statuettes surround the central gilt bronze pattern.

Statues represent two women draped in the antic style, one holding a palm, the other a cornucopia. Two sculpted chimeras finished the décor on each side. The semi-circular pediment surmounting the upper part presents a gilt bronze faun mascaron.

Biography

The renowned firm of Meynard was established at 50 Faubourg-Saint-Antoine in Paris in 1812. Created by Guillaume Meynard, the company became famous under the name of Father-and-Son Meynard when in 1833, Guillaume-Mathieu, the eldest child of Guillaume Meynard joined him. His father left his son alone managing the family-owned business from 1848. Guillaume-Mathieu was joined by his son Léon-Guillaume in 1866. The firm was then called Meynard and Son. Under the same name, Léon-Guillaume, then representing the third generation, took leadership from 1873 until 1889 when he sold his business to Eugène Frager. After winning numerous awards at the Products of Industry Exhibitions and later at the Universal Exhibitions (a gold medal won in Paris in 1878), the Frager furnishing and decoration company perpetuated the excellent reputation of the firm by being awarded a silver medal at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1889.

The low reliefs and other bronze ornaments of this sideboard, of very high standard quality, were cast in the workshops of Ferdinand Barbedienne after designs by Constant Sévin. Those designs had been already used successfully on a bookcase exhibited by Sévin and Barbedienne at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1867. Ferdinand Barbedienne (1810-1892) started one of the most famous 19th century artistic bronze casting companies. In addition to his personal production, he worked for famous artists such as Clésinger and Carrière-Belleuse. These artists production – as illustrated in their catalogue – varied from busts and ornamental sculptures such as clocks, candlesticks, sconces to decorations for furniture, as shown on our sideboard. Barbedienne’s production was always highly esteemed and he was, himself admired by contemporary art critics who compared him during the 1878 Universal Exhibition to a “prince of industry and the king of bronze-casting”.

Louis-Constant Sévin (1821-1888) designed silver-smith’s objects for famous firms like Denière and Froment-Meurice, before working for Barbedienne as sculptor-ornemanist since 1855. Sévin’s works are considerable, he designed furniture bronzes for the « hôtel de La Païva » and was particularly remarked at the London Exhibition in 1862, where he was awarded a medal. The most extraordinary object designed by Sévin for Barbedienne, was a Renaissance style gilded bronze monumental clock, for which Sévin won a gold medal at the Universal Exhibition in 1878.

Bibliography

L’univers des bronzes, Yves Devaux, Ed. Pygmalion, Paris, 1978.

Exposition Universelle de 1878, Rapport sur les bronzes d’art, Groupe III, Classe 25, p° 26.

Les ébénistes du XIXe siècle, Ledoux-Lebard, Ed. de l’amateur, Paris, 1989, p° 209 & 481.

« Le salon des arts du mobilier », La Revue de l’art ancien et moderne, Paris, impr. Georges Petit, t. XII, juillet-décembre 1902, pp.185-186.

Salon des industries du mobilier, Grand Palais des Champs Elysées, juillet-novembre 1902, organisé par la chambre syndicale de l’ameublement, Paris, impr. Wattier frères, 1902

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Cabinet-maker
(1830-1907)
(attributed to)

Rare display sideboard

France
Circa 1867

Natural oak, Amaranth, Enamel, Gilt bronze

Height : 332 cm (130,7 in.) ; Width : 200 cm (78,7 in.) ; Depth : 54 cm (21,2 in.)

Important two-tiered sideboard made in natural oak and carved amaranth wood: the lower part made up of four panels, two concave ones and two doors, richly ornated with a polychrome enameled floral decoration and gilt bronze plaques.

A large dual drawer is surmounted by the upper part of the sideboard, opening with two glazed doors, framed by detached columns. The entire unit is topped with a pediment onto which a female bust is carved in relief within a medallion on a gilt background.

The Forney library in Paris preserves order registers of the Fourdinois as well as sketches books and pictures representing pieces of furniture made by the Fourdinois workshops. In this documentation, some elements enable us to link this sideboard with Henri-Auguste Fourdinois’ productions, such as the large scrolls linking the upper part to the lower part of the sideboard, as well as the detached columns carved at their lower third.

Notebook containing ink-sketches coming from the Fourdinois workshop shows a project for a pelmet, beautified with a centering trophy composed of a torch and a quiver within in a foliage wreath, this motif obviously reused by the Fourdinois on the central decoration of the panels of our sideboard.

Biography

The firm of Fourdinois, considered during the Second Empire as the greatest furniture manufacturer in Paris, was founded in 1835 by Alexandre-Georges Fourdinois (1799-1871). It was developped in the context of the Expositions Universelles. At the time, the firm already produces furniture of the Neo-Renaissance style, such as a dresser that won the Great Medal at the London Universal Exhibition of 1851. The son, Henri-Auguste Fourdinois (1830-1907), joined the firm in 1860 and will become head of the firm in 1867. The high quality of his designs was remarked at the Universal Exhibition in 1862, when the jury awarded him two medals « for Excellence of Composition and Execution ». Henri-Auguste, now sole in charge, brought the firm to the summit of its achievements at the 1867 Universal Exhibition in Paris by winning the Grand Prize for his stand. Apart from the commissions he executed for the « Mobilier de la Couronne », he also produced high quality furniture for the Parisian bourgeoisie. The firm is at its zenith during the years 1862-1880. At this time, it is considered as an example to follow for other cabinet-makers, whether they are French, British or American.

Through the quality of execution and the extreme care taken in the decoration of furniture, H.-A. Fourdinois was particularly appreciated by Napoleon III and Eugenie, who ordered him to furnish several imperial residences, such with the bedroom of the apartment of the Pope at Fontainebleau Palace. Among his talents, Fourdinois knew how to match furniture with elaborate and luxurious sets, thus causing him to become one of the preferred suppliers of the Empress Eugenie. His meticulous work was in particular made thanks to the new technique of “en plein” marquetry, a decorative technique invented by H.-A. Fourdinois himself, for which he registered a patent allowing him to have the monopoly to use this technique. This new technique is quite different from the traditional marquetry which put together wood sheets veneered on a furniture piece. In Fourdinois’ “en plein” marquetry, the inlaid wood is joined together with the wooden structure of the furniture piece, allowing the cabinet-maker to carve directly the inlaid wood. Such a technique enabled to inlay different types of wood inside the structure as well as precious stones, ivory, slate, etc.

Museology

– Monumental inlaid door, with enameled decoration, shown at the Universal Exhibition of 1878, preserved at the Orsay Museum, Paris (Inv. DO 1980 1).

– A walnut two-tiered cabinet inlaid with bloodstone, lapis-lazuli, ivory and silver, preserved at the Decorative Arts Museum, Paris (Inv. 29921).

– The bedroom set of the apartment of the Pope at Fontainebleau Palace, preserved in situ.

– Psyche of Empress Eugenie’s toilet cabinet at Saint-Cloud Palace, preserved at Compiègne Castle.

Bibliography:

– Sources et modèles d’un ébéniste au XIXe siècle: l’exemple d’Henri Fourdinois (1830-1907), Olivier Gabet, in Bulletin de la Société de l’Histoire de l’Art Français, Paris, 2003, p. 261-278.

– Marqueteries virtuoses au XIXe siècle, brevets d’invention, Marc Maison et Emmanuelle Arnould, Paris, 2012, p. 12-14 et 48-59.

– Croquis et commandes, Henri-Auguste Fourdinois, Fourdinois Rue Amelot Paris, 1855-1865.

– Nouveau recueil d’ameublement: meubles, sièges, lits, tentures, tapisseries, etc., Henri-Auguste Fourdinois, Librairies Imprimeries Réunies, 1890, Vol. I.

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Cabinet-maker
(1808-1885)

Magnificent bookcase

France
Circa 1860

Height: 330 cm (129,9 in.) ; Width: 300 cm (118,1 in.) ; Depth: 80 cm (31,5 in.)

Exceptional neo Renaissance bookcase forming desk in birds-eye carved mahogany. This monumental piece consists in a lower part forming drop-front desk supported by two pillars with drawers. The lateral parts each open with a moulded door.  The bookcase occupies the upper part, opening by four windows separated by carved semi-columns finishing in Corinthian capitals. The whole is surmounted by a large pediment adorned with chimera and a female head. The ornaments is inspired by the Renaissance and consists mostly in carved foliate, chimera, griffins and  phantasmagorical masks, what makes this piece not only a masterpiece of architecture, but also of sculpture.

Biography

Guillaume Grohé (1808-1885) born in the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt came to settle in Paris in 1827. With his brother Jean-Michel, he run a successful company named “Grohé Brothers” featuring furniture and objects of art, and presenting successfully works at the Exhibition of the Products of Industry in 1834. His success was as well as fast as substantial. Guillaume received the Legion of Honour in 1849 and was later promoted to officer of that order. In 1861, his brother retired from business, leaving Guillaume alone at the head of the company. With no successor, the company ceased trading in 1884. Supplier of King Louis XVIII (Louis XIV style console, National Exhibition of 1844, a Renaissance style Ebony museum cabinet, 1844), King Louis-Philippe, the Emperor Napoleon III (mahogany dining room, Palace Saint-Cloud, 1855; mahogany furniture, Compiègne Palace, Renaissance style mahogany furniture at the Palace of Fontainebleau, 1859), and after 1862, he supplied Queen Victoria. Specialized in the making of furniture of various styles, the Duke of Aumale commissioned him the furniture of the castle of Chantilly. He took part brilliantly and was also several times member of the jury at the Universal Exhibitions. According to the report of the jury for the 1878 Paris Universal Exhibition, Grohé is described, as “the undisputed master of the modern cabinet-making, was exhausted in respect of all forms of praise, as he won all the series of rewards.” Maxime Boucheron last quoted in an article in Le Figaro in 1884 that “Grohé was a true grand master of the art of the nineteenth century cabinetmaking. A career of over fifty years has filled our museums, our national palace with incomparable masterpieces. He assured the dominance of French taste in luxury furniture.”

Bibliography

Les ébénistes du XIXe siècle, Denise Ledoux-Lebard, Ed. de l’Amateur, 1984, p. 237.

This exceptional piece was sold when the Grohé factory completely stopped its production, in 1884, in Paris.

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France
Circa 1870

Total Height : 270 cm (106,3 in.) ; Width : 197 cm (77,6 in.) ; Depth : 45 cm (17,7 in.)
Chimneypiece Height : 111 cm (43,7) ; Overmantel Height : 159 cm (62,6 in.) Opening : 91×88 cm (35,8×34,6 in.)

An important Carrara white marble chimneypiece surmounted by a white and green marbles overmantel with an oval mirror at the center. This neoclassical chimneypiece is adorned with double columns with Corinthian capitals at the jambs ; the overmantel is enriched with a laurel wreath around the mirror and an exterior egg-shaped.

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1896

Oak wood, Patinated iron, Gilt bronze

Height : 104 cm (41 in.) ; Diam. : 45 cm (17,7 in.)

A rare oak column adorned with patinated iron and gilt bronze ornaments. It relies on four bronze feet and is topped with a foliate bronze capital with caduceus. A bronze band is circling the barrel and wear the following dedication, in Spanish : « To Mr Dionisio Conde. On the occasion of his wedding. The staff of The Century. November 1896. » This person was a famous judge from San Juan, Puerto Rico, in the late 19th century, when this caribbean island change from a Spanish settlement to an American power.

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Cabinet-maker
(1823-1900)
(attributed to)

Neo-Pompeian Salon

France
Circa 1860

Height : 210 cm (82,7 in.) ; Width : 120 cm (47,2 in.)

Rare neo-Pompeian salon composed of two armchairs, two chairs and a wooden mirror embellished with a gilded decor on a black lacquered background. A patinated bronze wolf head tops the mirror, framed by gilded ivy garlands. Wolf heads and patinated wood winged lions adorn the chairs and armchairs, covered of red velvet. They rest on anterior lion feet.

Biography

Jean-Paul Mazaroz was a sculptor who began his career working for Ribaillier in the 1850’s. At the Universal Exhibition of 1855, Mazaroz exhibited several pieces of furniture himself. At this point, his success and popularity started to grow, particularly at the Universal Exhibitions of 1867 and 1878, where he won silver medals. The firm disappeared in 1890. 

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Damas
Circa 1930

Two Armchairs: Height: 97cm (38,2 in.) ; Width: 90cm (35,4 in.) ; Depth : 47,5 cm (18,7 in.)
Sofa: Height: 97cm (38,2 in.) ; Width: 135cm (53,1 in.) ; Depth : 47 cm (18,5 in.)

Oriental salon suite comprising two large armchairs and a small sculpted, openwork, inlaid wooden sofa. Nicely decorated with stylized motifs, mother-of-pearl incrustation and geometrical elements in Mashrabiyya.

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Cabinet-maker
(1808-1885)

Outstanding Pair of Marqueterie Tables

Stamped

France
Circa 1855

Marquetry, box tree, amaranth, ebony, yew, sycamore

Height: 73 cm (28,7 in.); Width: 75,5 cm (29,7 in.); Depth: 50 cm (19,6 in.)

Exceptional Louis XVI style marqueterie tables, opening with a frieze drawer, made in box tree, amaranth, ebony, yew, sycamore, with very fine chiseled ormolu mounts. The top is richly decorated with inlaid cross-bottonies ornaments executed with a great finesse and variety of woods; rimmed by a pierced ormolu gallery.

Biography

Guillaume Grohé (1808-1885) settled down in Paris in 1827 with his brother Jean-Michel and started a company making and selling furniture and art objects, which became famous very quickly. They took part in the 1834 “Exposition des Produits de l’Industrie Française”. In 1849 he was awarded the “Légion d’honneur” and later officer. His reputation is mainly based on a style furniture specialisation. He was one of the most well-known cabinet-makers at his time, providing King Louis-Philippe, Emperor Napoleon the IIIrd and Empress Eugénie, princes and princesses, even Queen Victoria in Great-Britain after 1862. He naturally participated in many different exhibitions and was jury member in Universal Exhibitions.

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Cabinet-maker and bronze caster
(1847-1919)

Magnificent Louis XV Style Flat Desk

Signed « A.-E. Beurdeley »

France
Circa 1880

Height: 78,5 cm (30,9 in.); Length: 144 cm (56,6 in.); Depth: 79,5 cm (31,2 in.)

Exceptional kingwood and satinwood veneer double-sided desk, opening with three frieze drawers. Mounted with remarquable chiseled ormolu representing shells, foliage and flower garlands, this desk is representative of French taste. It is by his quality one of the most beautiful examples of A.E. Beurdeley’s manufacturing prowess.

This flat desk is inspired by the one executed by the cabinet-maker Joseph Baumhauer, which was offered by King Louis XV to Empress Elisabeth I of Russia in 1745. It is now exhibited in the Los Angeles Getty Center.

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, specialising in 18th century furniture. Louis-Auguste was the star whenever he exhibited and was “most favoured 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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France
Circa 1880

Height : 77 cm (30,3 in.) ; Length : 153 cm (60,2 in.) ; Depth : 84 cm (33 in.)

This important Mazarin desk veneered with a “Boulle” marquetry made of red tortoiseshell, copper and tin opens at the front with seven drawers and one door. It stands on two sets of drawers laying on four feet gathered by a stretcher and adorned with lion feet. The top is richly decorated with arabesques inspired by the drawings of Jean Ier Berain (ornemanist, « dessinateur de la chambre et du cabinet du roi », 1640-1711) and presents mythological characters under a canopy at the centre. They are surrounded with monkeys and highlighted by a dazzling red ground made of tortoiseshell. The front and the sides show arabesques adorned with birds and small masks as well as characters playing games.

related work

Mazarin desk, Nicolas Sageot (1666-1731), circa 1700-1720, tortoiseshell, brass, gilded bronze. Petit Palais (inventory number ODUT1500)

The “Mazarin” shape appeared at the end of the 17th century, firstly adorned with a wooden floral marquetry (Pierre Gole, c.1620-1685), then with a marquetry made of tortoiseshell, copper and sometimes tin (André Charles Boulle, 1642-1732), as our piece of furniture witnesses. Their numerous drawers and the withdrawn central part allowed for a comfortable use of this kind of desks. However, they were also considered as ceremonial pieces of furniture since the marquetry decorates all sides of the desk with an important part given to the arabesques. During the 19th century, “Boulle” marquetry was very much appreciated by collectors and was reused by cabinet-makers such as Befort Jeune (1813-1880), Joseph Cremer (1811-1878) or Monbro Aîné (1807-1884).

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Bronze-caster
(Active from 1831 to 1864)

A Rare Pair of Neo-Pompeian Gueridons

France
Circa 1880

A similar model was exhibited at the 1889 Paris Universal Exhibition 

Signed PICARD

Height. : 83 cm (32,7 in) ; Diam. : 65,5 cm (25,8 in)

Rare pair of round table made of patinated and gilded bronze with a top veneered with malachite and circled with bronze mounts adorned with ovum and beads. They stands on three patinated bronze feet with lion heads and paws, linked with gilded bronze X braces.

Related Works

The feet of these gueridons adopt a sleek design and are adorned with claws and lion heads. Inspired by a well-known model in the Barbedienne Company production and it has been reused many times by his workshop. These gueridons shows how the Barbedienne Company offered a range of furniture from the designs of its decorator Louis-Constant Sévin. He designed this model of gueridon few time after he joined the Barbedienne Company in 1855 and this model can be seen on different interior decorations of the Second Empire.

Otherwise a picture of the Emperor’s study at Saint-Cloud Castle demonstrates that a gueridon with such feet took place in it ; it illustrates the success of this model in the imperial family.

Guéridon with feet of the same design, in the Pompeian House of Prince Napoleon, Paris (view of the Atrium).

Some years later the Gazette des Beaux-Arts published an engraving depicting a gueridon exhibited at the 1889 Universal Exhibition. The engraving shows a gilt bronze plate resting on a tripod having identical feet and it reveals the longevity of this model inside the Barbedienne Company production. The caption mentions “Bronze plate designed by Mr Levillain and made by Mr Barbedienne (1889 Universal Exhibition)”.

Guéridon with feet of the same design at Saint-Cloud Castle (view of Napoleon III’s study) (reproduced in Des Tuileries à Saint-Cloud, l’art décoratif du Second Empire)

Guéridon, Exposition Universelle, 1889 (reproduced in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, p. 415)

Biography

Henri Picard was established in Paris, 6 rue Jarente from 1831 to 1839 and then 10 rue de la Perle from 1840 to 1864. He worked on the Emperor Napoleon III’s apartments gilding at the Louvre Palace. His production was in a rich and fine style, like a Japanese style inkwell, or his Pompeian style dining table centerpieces.

Bibliography

– Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1er octobre 1889, p. 415.

– Des Tuileries à Saint-Cloud, l’art décoratif du Second Empire, Henri Clouzot, Payot, Paris, 1935.

– « La maison pompéienne du Prince Napoléon avenue Montaigne », Marie-Claude Dejean de la Batie, in La Gazette des Beaux-arts, t. LXXXVII, 1287e livraison, avril 1976, pp. 127-134. fig. 7.

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Cabinet-maker
(1843-late 19th century)
(attributed to)

Neo-Renaissance Cabinet

France
Circa 1889

Presented at the Universal Exhibition of Paris in 1889  

Height : 194 cm (76,5 in.) ; Width : 173 cm (68 in.) ; Depth : 56 cm (22 in.)

Important sculpted and engraved natural wood, patinated bronze and Griotte de Campan red marble inlaid Neo-Renaissance style cabinet.

The upper part is composed of a frieze of bronze medallions separated by triglyphs and supported by ribbed columns with corinthian capitals. There are eight of these columns paired at the front and two simple columns at the rear. The facade presents an alternation of bronzes in niches and cartouches, of marble slates in cartouches sometimes flanked by palmettes, and of engraved motives of laurel and foliage scrolls. The upper part opens with three leaves and three mobile compartments. The belt carved with acanthus leaves opens with two drawers. This cabinet is supported by four richly sculpted tapered feet ending with claws. Four fluted pilasters are inscribed in the moulded back as counterparts. The whole ensemble stands on a moulded plinth and eight rounded feet.

The bronze ornamentation

The iconography of the bronze low-reliefs adorning this cabinet brings together the mythology, the Roman world and the Renaissance period. The facade presents two bronze pannels with camp scenes depicting the Emperor talking to his soldiers. A third medallion scene depicts a soldier next to his wounded companion. This medallion is framed by two bronzes featuring Poseidon.

A frieze including 24 bronze medals girds the top of the cabinet. Some of them depict notable figures in Renaissance history in the manner of Guillaume Dupré (c.176-1643), who trained with Prieur and was close to King Henri IV, then sculptor of King Louis XIII. Some others picture Roman emperors after sestertium models or scences from the antique life.

Medal with the effigy of Henri IV, Guillaume Dupré, 1600, collections of the Medal Cabinet, French National Library

Sestertium depicting Aulus Vitellius Germanicus 59 A.D

Period texts

Around 1889, numerous cabinets or commodes included this type of medals or medallions (it can be noted that during the years 1880, F.Levillain (1837-1905) developped a new technique of production for low-reliefs that allowed creating medallions through a system of mechanical sculpture). Several of this type of cabinets were produced by G.F.Quignon, including a ‘joli cabinet, d’une construction parfaite, élégant de forme, enrichi de colonnettes, de bas-reliefs de bronze, et de frises en marqueterie’ (a nice cabinet, perfectly constructed, of an elegant shape, enriched with small columns, bronze low-reliefs, and marquetry friezes; in Exposition Universelle, 1889, les Beaux-Arts et les Arts Décoratifs, published under the direction of L.Gonse and A. de Lostalot, Paris, Journal Le Temps, p.351). In the Rapports du Jury International, Exposition Universelle de 1889 à Paris, Alfred Picard noted that Quignon became a ‘maître’ : ‘who has not admired his very fine Henri II piece of furniture, in natural pearwood ?’. V. Champier reproduced a pearwood cabinet identical to ours in Les Industries d’Art à l’exposition universelle de 1889.

Neo Renaissance Cabinet exhibited at the Universal Exhibition of Paris in 1889 illustrated in J. Meyer, Great Exhibitions, London, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, 1851-1900, Antique Collector’s Club, 2006, p. 281.

Neo-Renaissance Style

This piece of furniture is a very fine example of the Neo-Renaissance style, which appeared in the years 1830 with Claude-Aimé Chenavard (ornemanist, 1798-1838), and was notably developed by the decorator Michel Liénard (1810-1870). This style followed the Neo-Gothic style and the cult of the Middle-Ages and succeeded on the long run. Inspiration sources were numerous in France and the iconographic richness of the mannerism flattered the taste of the Second Empire. Cabinet-markers notably took inspiration from the Henri II period and favored the use of richly sculpted solid wood.

Biography

Gustave-Frédéric Quignon, born in 1843, worked with his father Napoléon Quignon, boulevard Richard-Lenoir. He took the lead in 1874 and expanded the production of the firm with other seats and pieces of furniture, but also with sculpture. Like his father before him, he produced richly carved and gilded Louis XV and Louis XVI style furniture, but also some Neo-Renaissance furniture. He became a supplier of the Mobilier National. He exhibited at the Universal Exhibition in 1878 and won a gold medal. He was a member of the jury at the Universal Exhibition in 1889. The same year, he relocated the firm rue de Saint-Sabin, where he worked until the end of the century. He participated to the French Exhibition of Moscow in 1891, next to H.Dasson and P.Sormani, and to the rapports sur l’Exposition Internationale de Chicago in 1893. He won the Grand Prix for his stand at the Universal Exhibition of 1900.

Museology

A set of furniture (a great sideboard, a display case, a table and eighteen chairs) in natural wood from the Quignon firm, circa 1870, is housed at the Willet-Holthuysen Museum, Amsterdam.

Bibliography

V. Champier, Les Industries d’Art à l’exposition universelle de 1889, Paris, 1889.

D. Ledoux-Lebard, Les Ebénistes du XIXe siècle, Les Editions de l’Amateur, 1984, p.538.

J. Meyer, Great Exhibitions, London, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, 1851-1900, Antique Collector’s Club, 2006 (an identical pearwood cabinet illustrated p. 281).

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Cabinet-maker
(active circa 1880)

H.-A. Fourdinois

Cabinet-maker
(1830-1907)
(after)

Remarkable Cabinet with the ‘Four Seasons’

Signed « Meubles D’Art, M. Lerolle, Fabricant, 61, Rue des Sts-Peres. Paris »

France
Circa 1890

Height : 239 cm (94 in.) ; Width : 149 cm (58,6 in.) ; Depth : 56 cm (22 in.)

Remarkable walnut and boxwood cabinet, richly sculpted in the Neo-Renaissance style, and inlaid with vert de mer marble cabochons and cartouches.

The upper part is formed by a scrolled broken pediment with a carved medallion supported by two putti at the centre. The facade features seven ionic columns adorned with ivy at their base and four female figures sculpted in the round, sheltered in niches and supported by cherub heads. The sculptures are allegories of the seasons. The upper part opens with three leaves and three drawers. In the lower part, the belt includes three drawers and is adorned with cartouches with mythological scenes. This piece of furniture is supported by two very richly sculpted winged sphinxes surrounding a central medallion adorned with a bacchanal scene, and stands on a moulded plinth and height feet.

This piece of furniture is a very fine example of the Neo-Renaissance style, which appeared in the years 1830 with Claude-Aimé Chenavard (ornemanist, 1798-1838), and was notably developed by the decorator Michel Liénard (1810-1870). This style followed the Neo-Gothic style and the cult of the Middle-Ages and succeeded on the long run. Inspiration sources were numerous in France and the iconographic richness of the mannerism flattered the taste of the Second Empire. Cabinet-markers notably took inspiration from the Henri II period and favored the use of richly sculpted solid and dark wood.

Our piece of furniture witnesses the interpretation and blending effort made by the artists of the nineteenth-century. It brings together the classicism of the Renaissance and its mythological subjects and the rigorous architectured structure, with a certain exuberance inherited from the Romanticism.

Related work :

Cabinet exhibited at the Exposition Universelle in 1867 (Fourdinois won a Grand Prix for his stand).
Museum of Decorative Arts, Paris (Inv. 29921).
Made by Henri-Auguste Fourdinois, Nivillier (ornaments design), Party (modelling of the bodies), Hugues Protat, Primo et Maigret (sculptures).
Illustrated in D. Ledoux-Lebard, Les Ebénistes du XIXe siècle, Ed. de l’Amateur, 1984, pp.205

 Biography

The firm of Fourdinois, considered during the Second Empire as the greatest furniture manufacturer in Paris, was founded in 1835 by Alexandre-Georges Fourdinois (1799-1871). It was developed in the context of the Expositions Universelles. At the time, the firm already produces furniture of the Neo-Renaissance style, such as a dresser that won the Great Medal at the London Universal Exhibition of 1851. The son, Henri-Auguste Fourdinois (1830-1907), joined the firm in 1860 and will become head of the firm in 1867. The high quality of his designs was remarked at the Universal Exhibition in 1862, when the jury awarded him two medals « for Excellence of Composition and Execution ». Henri-Auguste, now sole in charge, brought the firm to the summit of its achievements at the 1867 Universal Exhibition in Paris by winning the Grand Prize for his stand. Apart from the commissions he executed for the « Mobilier de la Couronne », he also produced high quality furniture for the Parisian bourgeoisie. The firm is at its zenith during the years 1862-1880. At this time, it is considered as an example to follow for other cabinet-makers, whether they are French, British or American.

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France
Late 19th century

A very fine eight pieces set composed of four armchairs and two matching chairs with their stretcher, and a further pair of chairs, all made in walnut finely carved in the Regence style. Ornated with foliate shells, small flower garlands and beautiful acanthuses on the serpentine armrests of the seats. The legs also carved with scalloped leaves terminate in scrolls and hoof feet.

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England
Circa 1860

Height : 79 cm (31 in.) ; Diameter : 66 cm (26 in.)

A Japanese style lacquered table consisting of a circular top adorned with a gold nuagé lacquered decor and with red exotic flowers and scrolled foliage. The top is supported by four gold-and-brown lacquered uprights in form of large stylized acanthuses, constricted in the middle by a tapered ball, and ending with four other reversed legs. Standing on a square gold edged base decorated in the middle of a checkerboard of fine gilded juxtaposed polygons on a brown background. The frieze along this base is decorated with small acanthus leaves, a centering flower and four stylized elephant heads forming the feet of the table.

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Italy – Venice
2nd half of the 19th century

Height : 87 cm (34,2 in.) ; Width : 84 x 70 cm (33 x 27,5 in.)

This gilded wood center table is inspired by decorative and architectural motifs of the Trecento, the Italian pre-Renaissance of the fourteenth century. With a beautiful and molded quatrefoil top adorned in centering gold edged cartridges, with hand-painted under glass decoration motifs in imitation of half-precious stones such as agate, lapis lazuli or malachite on a porphyry imitated background. Around the frieze, the architectural-shaped foot and base, further elegant cartridges inspired by the Renaissance style scalloped edged “cuirs découpés”, are decorated with glass painted cabochons imitating other stones.

This Venetian table made in the second half of the nineteenth century, is reminiscent of the Italian Trecento and Venice itself, where a strong Gothic tradition tinged with local originalities then produced masterpieces. All the criteria are met here : gold, light through glass and half-precious stones.

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France
Circa 1880

Height : 76 cm (30 in.) ; Width : 51 cm (20 in.) ; Depth : 32 cm (12,6 in.)

Beautiful Louis XVI style writing table made in mahogany. The rectangular top, surrounded on three sides by a fine pierced and gilt-bronze frieze, above a drawer whose front forms a flap opening by a clever mechanism, revealing an elegant brown leathered writing surface. The table stands on two mahogany legs with an openwork interlacing decoration, joined by a stretcher adorned with a centering pierced and gilt-bronze basket.

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Cabinet-maker
(1830-1906)
(attributed to)

Pair of Aesthetic Movement armchairs

France
Circa 1880

Height : 102 cm (40 in.) ; Width : 67 cm (25,2 in.) ; Depth : 55 cm (21,6 in.)

These armchairs made of tinted alder are to be linked to another pair of armchairs executed by Gabriel Viardot, and now exhibited at the Decorative Arts Museum in Paris (Inv. 2006.105.1.2). They present a similar asymmetric design and an equal carving quality including the winding dragon on the back.

Biography

Gabriel Viardot career began as a wood carver and he produced small furniture, sculpturally carved with naturalistic motifs and animals. In the 1855 Exposition Universelle in Paris, his finely sculpted objects were well received. However, with the increasing importation of similarly produced Swiss and German articles, he found less opportunity for these and decided to innovate. G. Viardot succeeded to his father’s business in 1861 installed rue Rambuteau in Paris. Around 1870 he turned to the idea of producing « Meubles genre Chinois et Japonais ». The taste in Europe for exotic furniture, incorporating sometimes authentic Chinese or Japanese objects was well established. But Viardot early designed his own models enriched with ivory, mother-of-pearl and beautiful gilt-bronze mounts. After having won four medals at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1867, Viardot was awarded a silver medal at the 1878 Universal Exhibition in Paris. He was also awarded gold medals several times : Universal Exhibitions in Anvers (Belgium) in 1884, and again in Paris in 1889 and 1900. A contemporary commentator notes that he had a workshop employing approximately 100 men, both sculptors and cabinet-makers with another 25 to 30 outside contract workers. « l’Escalier de Cristal », the famous Parisian offering luxurious furniture got the exclusivity to use their own stamp on six Viardot’s furniture models.

Works in connection

• Victoria and Albert Museum, London : A Japanese style walnut carved cabinet, 1888

• Corning Museum of Glass, New York : Set of shelves, edited by « l’Escalier de Cristal » about 1895

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Ornemanist
(active between 1867 and 1873)

E. Frémiet

Sculptor
(1824-1910)

C.-G. Diehl

Cabinet-maker
(1811-1885)
(attributed to)

A neo-Greek cigar cellarette

France
Circa 1867

Height : 124 cm (48,8 in.) ; Width : 55 (21,6 in.) ; Depth : 42 cm (16,5 in.)

Rare humidor made in cedar, with a front flap, discovering five sliding cane trays. Beautiful bronze and silver electroplated brass ornaments, such as the central niche decorated with a winged creature, surmounted on top of the cabinet with a feline. Resting on four tall legs joined by a stretcher decorated with a silvered pierced bronze incense burner.

The central relief of that cellarette for cigars, with that fantasy creature, is directly inspired from the one designed by J. Brandely for the front door of the Merovingian Cabinet made by Diehl in 1867, and now preserved at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (Inv. 1989.197).

Biography

Arriving in Paris in about 1840 Charles-Guillaume Diehl (1811-1885) founded his cabinet making and decoration firm at 19 rue Michel-le-Comte in 1885. His workshops produced elegant little pieces of furniture in rosewood and thuja and novelties with bronze and porcelain embellishments (see « Les ébénistes du XIXème siècle »,D. Ledoux-Lebard, Ed. de l’amateur, 1982, p.164). It was his luxury boxes, however (liqueur cellarettes, cigar cabinets, games boxes, cashmere cases, jewelry cases) which assured Diehl’s renown (see « l’Art en France sous le Second Empire », Exposition Grand-Palais, Paris, 1979, p.133). Already rewarded with a bronze medal at the Universal Exhibition of 1855 in Paris, he exhibited a jardinière with china columns and a liqueur cabinet at the Industrial Arts Exhibition in 1861.

In collaboration with the designer Jean Brandely (active between 1867 and 1873), Diehl renovated his decorative repertory and created astonishing pieces of furniture in the Grecian style which had a dazzling success at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1867, where his cabinets also won a silver medal. Certain motifs were so typical of Diehl’s work that they received extensive commentary by the art critic J. Mesnard in his book « Les Merveilles de l’Exposition Universal de 1867 » (vol. II, pp. 133 & 149). He writes of a table of which « the pendant bearing hooks and the fan shaped radiating motif which ornaments the entablature are engraved with love » (p. 133) and a jewelry case where « The head in fine Grecian style makes up the essential part of the fine gilt bronze ornementation » (p. 149).

For this Universal Exhibition of 1867, Diehl also formed a partnership with two famous sculptors : Emile Guillemin (1841-1907) who carved the relief for a mahogany sideboard with galvanic gilt bronzes (Orsay Museum, Paris, Inv. O.A.O. 992) and Emmanuel Frémiet (1824-1910) who executed the low relief for a cedar medal cabinet with marquetry and silver plated bronzes (Orsay Museum, Paris, Inv. O.A. 10440). Diehl was again rewarded with a medal of honor at the Union Central Exhibition of 1869 and a progress medal at the Universal Exhibition in Vienna in 1873 (Sideboard in blackened pear wood and lemon wood with galvanic bronzes, designed by J. Brandely with a low relief by E. Guillemin, Orsay Museum, Paris, Inv. O.A.O. 336). Showered with praise by the critics, Diehl is considered as one of the most innovating artists of the 19th Century. His final appearance was at the 1878 Universal Exhibition in Paris where he presented outside the competition, his most recent creations, including a work table in marquetry which with its naturalistic grasshopper motif anticipated « Art Nouveau » (Musée de l’Ecole de Nancy, Nancy).

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Cabinet-maker & Bronze-caster
(1855-1946)
(attributed to)

Pair of Renaissance revival cabinets

France
Circa 1880

Cabinet 1 – Height : 152 cm (59,8 in.) ; Width : 96 cm (37,8 in.) ; Depth : 48 cm (18,9 in.)
Cabinet 2 – Height : 150 cm (59 in.) ; Width : 87,5 cm (34,4 in.) ; Depth : 42 cm (16,5 in.)

Rare pair of French Renaissance style ebonized cabinets. Composed of an architectured upper part, with inlaid panels alternated with fine fluted columns, opening with a central door onto an exquisite ebony filet framed sycamore veneered interior fitted with shelves. The decor of the panels inlaid with blend wood onto ebonized background is made of very fine designed motifs such scrolls, grotesques and flowery vases, all characteristic of the Renaissance decorative repertoire. The lower section with three drawers above a three arched support adorned with columns, raised on a stepped base ; the back with similarly-inlaid decoration.

These neo-Renaissance style cabinets are very close to François Linke’s one presented in his private collection.
(Reproduced and commented in François Linke (1855-1946), The Belle Epoque of French Furnitures, Ch. Payne, pp.40-41).
If the style, characterizing François Linke, is mostly recognizable by its Rococo-Art Nouveau motifs, it occasionally appealed other historical ornaments, such from the French Renaissance. That reminds of the time, when the cabinet took the central place in the interior furnishings. This collector furniture piece, which facade has sumptuously decorated doors matching the base, presents a decorative aesthetic coming from the architectural vocabulary.

Biography

François Linke, born in 1855 in Bohemia (Czechoslovakia), worked as a cabinet-maker in Paris from about 1882 until his death in 1946. In 1900, at the apex of his career, he opened a new shop at the famous Parisian place Vendôme. He specialized in Louis XV and Louis XVI style furniture: all pieces were beautifully mounted with gilt-bronze ornaments, and he received numerous commissions. Later Linke decided to collaborate with the well-known sculptor Léon Messagé and integrated new lines and shapes announcing the “Art Nouveau” style. His great success is definitely the 1900 Universal Exhibition where he was awarded the gold medal for his extraordinary kingwood desk, designed by Messagé. At this occasion, the “Revue artistique et industrielle” commented that “Linke’s stand is the biggest show in the history of art furniture”.

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Sculptor
(1833-1915)

A neo-Greek gueridon

Signed E. Picault – Expon des Bx arts – 1863

French School

Height : 94 cm (37 in.) ; Width : 52 x 40 cm (20 1/2 x 15 3/4 in.)

The wax model of this medallion was exposed under number 2524
at the French Artists Salon of Paris in 1863

Neo-greek gueridon made in gilded and patinated bronze, flanked by two Olympus god masks and ornated with a centering relief medallion inscribed « Olympias XCI Graeci Syracusis Captivi » and representing a historical scene taking place in 413 B.C. with the Athenian hostages at Syracuse. Reposing on a stand decorated with a lizard, with a circular base and four claw feet.

Biography

Emile-Louis Picault (1833-1915), brilliant pupil of the Flemish sculptor Louis Royer (1793-1868), exhibited numerous sculptures at the French Artists Salon from 1863 to 1909. His allegorical, biblical and mythological subjects (Perseus delivering Andromeda, Salon of 1880) are treated in a realistic style. Picault generally collaborated with the founders Colin, Houdebine and Susse, all three renowned for the quality of their casts. He also acquired an important popularity for his Egyptian subjects, cast then by Servant. The Picault’s Japanese style subjects are scarce, and there are above all his Greek subjects, presenting a high standard quality of sculpture, very realistic, which are much fashionable during the second half of the 19th Century.

Picault’s works to be linked to

• The Fine Arts Museum, Troyes : La famille, Joies et Peines (896.13 ; RE 425), plaster relief exhibited at the 1894 Paris Salon of the National Society of Fine Arts.

• The Fine Arts Museum, Chambéry : Le Semeur d’idées (M 1418), reduced size bronze after the group exhibited by Picault at the 1896 Salon of French Artists.

• The Fine Arts Museum, Maubeuge : Le Devoir.

• Dahesh Museum of Art, New York : Allégorie.

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France
Circa 1870

Height : 99 cm (39 in.) ; Width : 66 cm (26 in.) ; Depth : 67 cm (26,3 in.)

A very fine pair of Directoire style carved and tinted mahogany armchairs, with carved sphinges for the armrest supports. The circumference of the seatback and the seat belt are delicately carved with beads, rosettes and links. Reposing on tapered and fluted legs topped with carved rings.

Related work

Those armchairs are close in design to the chair model made in 1790 by the cabinet-maker Georges Jacob (1739-1814), and now displayed at the Paris Decorative Arts Museum (Inv. Mob Nat Gme 1552).

Biography

After having been received Master in 1765, Georges Jacob (1739-1814) worked from 1773 to the French Revolution for the Crown Furniture Repository. Its clientele was the most brilliant with Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette, the royal family, especially the Count of Provence, future Louis XVIII, the Count of Artois, future Charles X, the Prince of Condé, the Duke of Penthièvre as well as foreign courts. In 1785 he created the first mahogany chairs, called « British chairs », for the Count of Provence. He launched the Etruscan style in 1788 by delivering « Etruscan » carved mahogany furniture for the dairy of the castle of Rambouillet. He also participated in the furnishings of the Petit Trianon at Versailles. Georges Jacob spent the revolutionary period without being harassed thanks to the famous painter David. He retired in 1796, leaving his workshop to his sons Georges Jr. and François-Honoré, who created the company Jacob Brothers at Meslée Street, making Directoire and Consulate style furniture and seating. Because of their success, George interrupted retirement to help his sons to supply the imperial residences of Napoleon I. François-Honoré added the name of Desmalter, after the death of his father, in memory of the family estate in Burgundy.

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Sculptor-Designer
(1810-1870)

G. Grohé

Cabinet-maker
(1808-1885)

Exceptional console

Signed Grohé à Paris

France

Height : 103 cm (40 1/2 in.) ; Length : 150 cm (59 in.) ; Depth : 50 cm (19 2/3 in.)

Awarded a Gold Medal at the Industrial Products Exhibition of 1844
(Reproduced in Musée des Familles, Lectures du Soir, t. XI, juillet 1844, p° 317)

Rare Napoleon III ebony console ornamented with gilt bronze mounts and underlined by a copper thread. Topped with red « griotte » marble. Frieze ornamented with acorn and foliage motifs, centred by a cartouche forming a heart. Legs ornamented with triton-putti and scrolling foliage. Center decorated with ribbons, female mask and naturalistic bouquets. Base ornamented with a twist with oves, acanthus leaves and flowered heads motifs. Mirror backplate. Resting on flat round feet.

Biography

Michel Liénard (1810-1870) worked as a designer and a sculptor. He regularly worked with Guillaume Grohé from 1839 until about 1855. Many of his sketches, now preserved at the French National Library as well as at the Paris Decorative arts Library, allow us to link this console to some other works executed by Liénard and Grohé (Second Album Liénard, dessin CD 4132-126, et Collection Maciet, vol. 344,6, Bibliothèque des Arts Décoratifs, Paris). Liénard worked also for the silversmith François-Désiré Froment-Meurice (1802-1855) and the famous organ maker Aristide Cavaillé-Coll (1811-1899). As a talented designer and sculpteur, Liénard was awarded the Legion of Honor in 1851.

Guillaume Grohé (1808-1885) born in the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt came to France about 1827 and settled in Paris. With his brother Jean-Michel, he led in Paris at 30 rue de Varennes the family business “Grohé Frères”, offering furniture and art objects and presented successfully works at the Industrial Products Exhibition of 1834, which earned him an honorable mention. His success was as rapid as considerable. He won a silver medal in 1839 and a gold medal at the Industrial Products Exhibition of 1844. He was awarded the Legion of Honor in 1849 and was later promoted to the rank of officer. In 1861, his brother retired from business, leaving Guillaume alone at the head of the company. With no successor, the company ceased its activity in 1884. Become in recent years one of the leading cabinetmakers of his time, Guillaume Grohé was naturally appointed Supplier of royal and imperial houses: for King Louis XVIII (Louis XIV Console, National Exhibition of 1844; Renaissance style ebony cabinet, 1844), for King Louis-Philippe (Rosewood Commode-secretary, 1839, now in the Louvre museum), for Emperor Napoleon III (Mahogany dining-room furniture at Saint-Cloud Palace, 1855; many mahogany furniture in the Compiègne and Fontainebleau palaces, 1859), and after 1862 for Queen Victoria. Specialized in the making of furniture style, the Duke of Aumale commissioned him to furnish Chantilly Castle, and Mrs. Pelouze, Chenonceaux Castle. Grohé participated brilliantly in the Universal Exhibitions and was there several times a member of the jury. According to the report of the jury of the 1878 Paris Universal Exhibition, Grohé is described as “the undisputed master of the modern cabinet-making, was awarded all forms of praise, as he won all series of rewards.” Maxime Boucheron finally quoted in a Figaro newspaper’s report in 1884 that “Grohé was a truly great master of the art of the nineteenth century woodwork. A career spanning more than fifty years has filled our museums and national palaces with incomparable masterpieces. He assured the preponderance of French taste in furnishing luxury.”

Works to be linked

This console, very illustrative of Second Empire style, can be related to a large ebony and rosewood armoire executed by G. Grohé for the “Salon des Guise” in Chantilly castle (Condé museum, Chantilly).

Bibliography

Musée des Familles, Lectures du Soir, t. XI, juillet 1844, p° 317

Collection Maciet, vol. 344,6, Bibliothèque des Arts Décoratifs, Paris.

Deuxième Album Liénard, dessin CD 4132-126, Bibliothèque des Arts Décoratifs, Paris.

L’Ameublement moderne par MM. Prignot,Liénard, Coignet et plusieurs autres artistes spéciaux, 2 vol.,Charles Claesen, Paris, 1876.

P. Liénard, A. Doussamy, Portefeuille de Liénard : motifs inédits applicables aux arts industriels et somptuaires choisis et mis en ordre par MM. Liénard et Doussamy, sculpteurs, Charles Cklaesen, Paris, s.d.

Les ornemanistes du XIXe siècle. Compositions d’ornements par Feuchère, Liénard, etc., Ducher et Cie, Paris, s.d.

M. Liénard, Specimens de la Décoration et de l’Ornementation au XIXe siècle, 3 vol., Charles Claesen, Liège, 1866.

D. Alcouffe et alii, « Un âge d’or des Arts Décoratifs », Grand-Palais, Paris, 1991.

B. Liénard, Motifs ornementaux : motifs et décors du XIXe siècle, Auxerre, H. Vial, 2003.

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Bronze caster
(Active since 1840)

Display table

Signed Matifat, Paris 1851
France

Height : 80 cm (31,5 in.) ; Width : 85 cm (33,5 in.) ; Depth : 67 cm (26,3 in.)

Masterpiece presented at the 1851 Universal Exhibition held at the London Crystal Palace.
(Reproduced and commented in “Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations 1851”, Reports by the juries, Vol.III, p°1106)

Exceptional gilt and chased bronze table, with a porphyry marble top surrounded by a border of acanthuses and pearl motifs. Supported on four legs in the shape of gryphon heads, whose wings are made of acanthus leaves. Resting on four clawed feet.

Biography

Charles Stanislas Matifat studied under the direction of the silversmith Antoine Vechte. He then succeeded his father in 1840 at the head of the family business founded in 1820, whose workshops were located No. 9 rue de la Perle in Paris. Charles Matifat exhibited for the first time in his own name at the Paris Exhibition of Industrial Products in 1849, where the jury awarded him a silver medal. At the Universal Exhibition of 1851, taking place in the stunning Crystal Palace in London, Charles Matifat (No. 923 of the French section) presented among many pieces, this table entirely made of gilded bronze and a large Louis XIV style chandelier commissioned by the king of Holland, William III, to his palace in The Hague. His show widely commented by critics earned him a second class medal. In 1853, Matifat who already had premises in London, participated in the Exhibition of Industrial Arts in Dublin. He worked a lot for the English nobility, such as Lord Londesborough who commissioned bronze candelabra. At the London Universal Exhibition of 1862, Matifat presented a chandelier made for the Duchess of Sutherland. In addition to his small scale art production, Charles Matifat also produced monumental bronze works after the great French sculptors models. He cast in 1860 the statue of the Marquis Dupleix, sculpted by Theodore Gruyère, then in 1873 the statue of General Daumesnil, sculpted by Louis Rochet. The same year, he made two important casts : The Abruzzo Child after the plaster sent from Rome by André-Joseph Allar and the Fountain of the Four Parts of the World created by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux and Emmanuel Frémiet in the Observatory gardens in Paris. During this period, Charles Matifat made several lampposts in the Grand Staircase of the new Opera recently built by Charles Garnier.

Bibliography

Cristal Palace, Album de l’Exposition, 1851, p. 265.

The Art Journal illustrated Catalogue, The Industry of all Nations, London, 1851, p. 48-50 & 324.

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Cabinet-maker
(1839-1920)
(attributed to)

Elegant table

France
Circa 1880

Height : 70 cm (27,5 in.) ; Width : 76 cm (30 in.) ; Depth : 47 cm (18,5 in.)

A very fine Louis XV style rectangular table, made in Satinwood, Tulipwood and Kingwood. Raised on four cabriole legs, each surmounted by a gilt-bronze mount and ending on cast feet. Surmounted by a serpentine-shaped top inlaid with an elegant stylized flower and palmet motif marquetry. The frieze, containing a long drawer, allover decorated with a fine « end-cut » floral parquetry, characteristic of Durand’s work (in D. Ledoux-Lebard. Les ébénistes du XIXe siècle, Paris, 1984, p°183).

Biography

Gervais Durand (1839-1920) participated in the 1889 Universal Exhibition where he was awarded a silver medal. A. Picard’s exhibition report stated that, « Mr Durand, cabinet-maker, as skillful as modest, displays for the first time very fine furniture, which has been designed and made by him. He is walking in the footsteps of giants such as Beurdeley and Dasson ». Durand made almost exclusively reproductions of 18th Century masterpieces, among which, those made by the most famous Parisian cabinet-maker, supplier of the Royal family : B.V.R.B. His works reveal in all points the great harmony between the forms, marquetry decoration and bronzes.

Related work

Tables made around 1745 after similar models by B.V.R.B. known and exhibited : Louvre Museum, Decorative Arts Museum (Paris) ; Victoria & Albert Museum (London) ; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York).

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Applied Arts School
(Founded in 1846)

Renaissance style center table

Label mentioning “I.R. Scuola…, Sezione Intarsio e Intaglio, Cortina d’Ampezzo, n°146”

Italy
Circa 1890

Height : 77 cm (30,3 in.) ; Width : 102 cm (40 in.) ; Depth : 62 cm (24,5 in.)

Exceptional Venetian Renaissance style center table. The top and the frieze opening with four drawers are fully ornamented with a flat carved decoration and a floral and geometric inlay according to the technique of Tarkashi. It rests on four architected legs joined by a stretcher.

Commentary

Don Cipriano Pescosta (1815-1889) created in October 1846 in the small town of Cortina d’Ampezzo, Veneto, a school for the teaching of drawing. The institution was gradually gaining wide popularity for its courses in sculpture as well as in cabinet making. In 1874, the school became “State Industrial School” and in September 1876, they opened sections of wood inlay and mosaic. In 1881, John Coddington, President of the famous Oriental Club in London, which included British nobles and other gentlemen residing in Asia, made known to the Italian School a new technique, the Tarkashi, thanks to some objects brought from a trip to India. It was a technique of marquetry employing refined interlaced ribbons of various woods and sometimes decorated with ivory and mother of pearl. Artists and students of the Ampezzo art school, already skilled at woodworking, adopted this technique, which was successfully developped and even brought the fame to Cortina d’Ampezzo. In 1889, the school was open to women with sections of sewing, embroidery and lace. Cortina d’Ampezzo School was awarded a silver medal in 1893 at the Regional Exhibition of Innsbruck in Austria. They then sold all of the exhibited pieces, including a large part to the German Darmstadt and Stuttgart museums.

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

A rare center table

France
Circa 1880

Height : 75 cm (29,5 in.) ; Width : 95 cm (37,4 in.) ; Depth : 55 cm (21,6 in.)

Made exclusively in richly carved boxwood ; with a fine pierced belt ornamented with laurel branches. Raised on four legs joined by a stretcher, centred by a carved boxwood vase. Topped with a red Griotte marble.

Beurdeley liked to use boxwood because of its hardness. Beurdeley, this cabinet-maker and sculptor at the same time, could then making pieces of furniture presenting a very high quality of carving. He showed for instance a beautiful boxwood table at the 1878 Paris Universal Exhibition (in « Beaux-Arts et Arts décoratifs à l’Exposition Universelle de 1878 », p.395).

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, specialising in XVIIIth 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 hightest 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.”

Bibliography

L’univers des bronzes, Yves Devaux, Ed. Pygmalion, Paris, 1978, p. 261.

“La saga Beurdeley (1814-1919)“, Bernard Dorival, B.S.H.A.F., 1989, p° 191.

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Sculptor-ornemanist
(1821-1888)

F. Barbedienne

Bronze-caster
(1810-1892)
(attributed to)

Neo-Greek center table

France
Circa 1880

Height : 91 cm (35,8 in.) ; Diameter : 90 cm (35,5 in.)

A similar model exposed at the 1889 Paris Universal Exhibition

Patinated and gilded bronze table with four paw feet joined by X shaped stems. Round green marble top mounted with a bronze rim adorned with oves and pearls motif.

related work

The feet of these gueridons adopt a sleek design and are adorned with claws and lion heads. This model is well known in the Barbedienne Company production and it has been reused many times by his workshop. This gueridon shows how the Barbedienne Company offered a range of furniture from the designs of its decorator Louis-Constant Sévin. He designed this model of gueridon few time after he joined the Barbedienne Company in 1855 and this model can be seen on different interior decorations of the Second Empire.

A tripod gueridon, a little bit higher, with feet like these ones can be seen on a picture showing the atrium of the Pompeiian house built for Prince Napoleon. Most of the Ancient style furniture was made by Charles Rossigneux (1818-1908) but this gueridon shows that the Barbedienne Company took also part to this work.

View of the atrium of the Pompeian style house of the Prince Napoléon

A picture of the Emperor’s study at Saint-Cloud Castle demonstrates that a gueridon of the same type took place in it ; it illustrates the success of this model in the imperial family.

View of the cabinet de l’Empereur à Saint-Cloud (reproduced in Des Tuileries à Saint-Cloud, l’art décoratif du Second Empire)

Some years later the Gazette des Beaux-Arts published an engraving depicting a gueridon exhibited at the 1889 Universal Exhibition. The engraving shows a gilt bronze plate resting on a tripod having identical feet and it reveals the longevity of this model inside the Barbedienne Company production. The caption mentions “Bronze plate designed by Mr Levillain and made by Mr Barbedienne (1889 Universal Exhibition)”.

Guéridon, Exposition Universelle de 1889 (reproduced in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, p. 415)

The neo-Greek style

These gueridons illustrate the neo-Greek style developed in France in the 19th century. Inspired from the Greek Antiquity this style used Ancient features to create new artworks by re-interprating Ancient inspirations with modern taste.
To design these gueridons Louis-Constant Sévin probably drew his inspiration from the Ancient bronze tripods offered to the Greek athletes as a reward for their sport exploit. The Ancient tripod is used by the designer who distorted it from its original form and used it to create a fashionable furniture item.

Biography

Born in 1821 and dead in Paris in 1888, Louis-Constant Sévin was apprenticed to the parisian sculptor Marneuf. In 1839, he joined the sculptor-modelors Phénix and Joyau, as designer, and designed silver-smith’s objects for famous firms like Denière, Froment-Meurice, Morel and Duponchel. During the Revolution in 1848, C. Sévin joined Morel in London, as workshop manager and designed pieces that Morel exhibited in 1851. Back in France in 1851, C. Sévin went to Limoges and designed models for the porcelain factories of Jouhanneaud and Dubois of which many pieces were exhibited at the Universal Exhibition in 1855. From this date on, he worked for Ferdinand Barbedienne as sculptor-ornemanist until the end of his life. Sévin’s works are considerable, he designed furniture bronzes for the « hôtel de La Païva ». At the London Exhibition in 1862, he was awarded a medal « pour l’excellence artistique des meubles qu’il a dessinés et qui sont exposés par Barbedienne » : for the artistic excellence of the furniture he designed and which is exhibited by F. Barbedienne. He won a second class medal at the Union centrale des Arts décoratifs Exhibition in 1863 and was awarded a gold medal as « cooperator ». F. Barbedienne said that posterity would remember Sévin’s compositions. The most extraordinary object designed by C. Sévin for F. Barbedienne, was a Renaissance style gilded bronze monumental clock, four metres high, for which C. Sévin won a gold medal as well as was awarded the Légion of Honour at the Universal Exhibition in 1878. His triumph was still valid at the 1889 Universal Exhibition.

Born in 1810, Ferdinand Barbedienne started one of the most famous 19th century artistic bronze casting companies. He died in 1892. In addition to his personal production, he worked for famous artists such as Clésinger, Carrière-Belleuse and Guillemin. Barbedienne’s production was always highly esteemed and he was, himself admired by contemporary art critics who compared him during the 1878 Universal Exhibition to a « prince of industry and the king of bronze-casting ». He was there awarded the « Grand Prix » as well as 28 cooperator medals. His glory did not decline with the passage of the time for at the Universal Exhibition of 1889 the critics thanked Barbedienne for the example he set for other bronze-casters by the perfection of his bronzes.

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Sculptor-ornemanist
(1821-1888)

F. Barbedienne

Bronze-caster
(1810-1892)
(attributed to)

Pair of neo-Greek gueridons

France
Circa 1880

Height : 80 cm (31,5 in.) ; Diam. : 50 cm (19,7 in.)

A similar model exposed at the 1889 Paris Universal Exhibition

Pair of patinated and gilded bronze high gueridons with for each of them, three paw feet joined by X shaped stretchers. Round red griotte marble top mounted with a bronze rim, adorned with ove and pearl motifs.

Biography

Born in 1821 and dead in Paris in 1888, Louis-Constant Sévin was apprenticed to the Parisian sculptor Marneuf. In 1839, he joined the sculptor-modelors Phénix and Joyau, as designer, and designed silver-smith’s objects for famous firms like Denière, Froment-Meurice, Morel and Duponchel. During the Revolution in 1848, C. Sévin joined Morel in London, as workshop manager and designed pieces that Morel exhibited in 1851. Back in France in 1851, C. Sévin went to Limoges and designed models for the porcelain factories of Jouhanneaud and Dubois of which many pieces were exhibited at the Universal Exhibition in 1855. From this date on, he worked for Ferdinand Barbedienne as sculptor-ornemanist until the end of his life. Sévin’s works are considerable, he designed furniture bronzes for the « hôtel de La Païva ». At the London Exhibition in 1862, he was awarded a medal « pour l’excellence artistique des meubles qu’il a dessinés et qui sont exposés par Barbedienne » : for the artistic excellence of the furniture he designed and which is exhibited by F. Barbedienne. He won a second class medal at the Union centrale des Arts décoratifs Exhibition in 1863 and was awarded a gold medal as « cooperator ». F. Barbedienne said that posterity would remember Sévin’s compositions. The most extraordinary object designed by C. Sévin for F. Barbedienne, was a Renaissance style gilded bronze monumental clock, four metres high, for which C. Sévin won a gold medal as well as was awarded the Légion of Honor at the Universal Exhibition in 1878. His triumph was still valid at the 1889 Universal Exhibition.

Born in 1810, Ferdinand Barbedienne started one of the most famous 19th century artistic bronze casting companies. He died in 1892. In addition to his personal production, he worked for famous artists such as Clésinger, Carrière-Belleuse and Guillemin. Barbedienne’s production was always highly esteemed and he was, himself admired by contemporary art critics who compared him during the 1878 Universal Exhibition to a « prince of industry and the king of bronze-casting ». He was there awarded the « Grand Prix » as well as 28 cooperator medals. His glory did not decline with the passage of the time for at the Universal Exhibition of 1889 the critics thanked Barbedienne for the example he set for other bronze-casters by the perfection of his bronzes.

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Bronze-caster
(1810-1892)
(attributed to)

A neo-Pompeian Gueridon

France
Circa 1860

Height : 75 cm (29,5 in.) ; Diameter : 61 cm (24 in.)

A tripod gueridon in gilded bronze, decorated with palm-leaves and standing on lion’s feet. The black marble top is decorated with an antique chariot scene and a Greek frieze picked out in red « Pompeian » micro-mosaic.

Similar ornaments were used by the Manufacture of Sèvres for the important dining set known as the « Pompeian set », made of red painted porcelain and delivered to the Prince Napoleon in about 1860 (A part of this set is now exhibited at the Porcelain Museum of Sèvres).

Biography

Ferdinand Barbedienne (1810-1892), the most important caster of bronze pieces of art during the second half of the 19^th Century, created and directed one of the principle artistic foundries of his day. Their illustrated catalogues included many diverse objects such as busts, ornemental sculpture (clocks, candelabras, chandeliers) sometimes even life-sized and also bronzes for furniture. Apart from his own production, Barbedienne worked for the most renowned sculptors such as Barrias, Bosio, Clésinger and Carrier-Belleuse.

At the London exhibition in 1851 Barbedienne’s firm won two « Council medals ». At the 1855 Universal Exhibition, he won a medal of honor and eleven cooperator’s medals for the work of his co-workers. The success of Barbedienne’s firm brought him many official commissions, such in about 1860, as Barbedienne supplied bronzes for furniture for the Pompeian Villa of Prince Napoleon, located avenue Montaigne in Paris. Black and ancient red were the dominant colors in its decor, as it was used for the top of this gueridon. At the 1867 Universal Exhibition in his capacity as member of and speaker for the Jury, he was non-contestant, but exhibited nevertheless with great success some of his great pieces. Barbedienne was made an officer of the Légion d’Honneur in 1867 and Commander in 1878 when he was compared with « a prince of industry and the king of bronze casting ». His glory did not decline with the passage of the time for at the Universal Exhibition of 1889 the critics thanked Barbedienne for the example he set for other bronze-casters by the perfection of his bronzes.

Bibliography

« L’Exposition universelle de 1889 : l’exemple de Barbedienne », Catherine Chevillot, in Revue de l’Art, 1992, n°95.

Catalogue de l’exposition : « L’art en France sous le Second Empire », Grand-Palais, Paris 1979.

Catalogue de l’Exposition Universelle, les Beaux-Arts et les Arts décoratifs, t. I : l’Art moderne, Paris, 1878.

Catalogue de l’Exposition Universelle, les Beaux-Arts et les Arts décoratifs, Paris, 1889.

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France
Circa 1880

Height : 99 cm (39 in.) ; Diameter : 26 cm (10,2 in.)

A very fine pair of Gothic Revival natural walnut stands. Each composed of a hexagonal molded red Griotte marble top, resting on a hexagonal tapeting shaft. Adorned all over with carved and pierced walnut pinnacles and lambrequins.

The somewhat architectural design evokes the creations of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879), who was not only a renowned theoretician, but above all an accomplished architect, whose genius lay in his acute observation of medieval buildings in view of their restoration, as well as the continuation of the Gothic style in architecture and decorative arts.

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France
Circa 1880

Height : 115 cm (45,2 in.) ; Diameter : 40 cm (15,7 in.)

A beautiful and large display column made of tinted wood. Composed of an upper rotating top, with three turned wooden handles. Resting on a large shaft whose grooves are topped by gilt-bronze button motifs. The molded base rests on an octogonal plinth.

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Cabinet-maker
(1825-1896)

Secretary with painted medallions

Signed henry Dasson

France
Circa 1880

Height : 138 cm (54,3 in.) ; Length : 95 cm (37,5 in.) ; Depth : 40,5 cm (16 in.)

A very fine Louis XVI style upright secretary, executed in ambony and palisander veneer, finely decorated with painted medallions presenting mythological scenes. Mahogany insider. Fine chiseled and gilded bronze mounts. « Brocatelle d’Espagne » marble stretcher and top. This work was inspired by the 18th century models executed by Adam Weisweiler.

Biography

As a cabinet-maker and a bronze-caster, Henry Dasson executed in his Paris workshop, installed at 106 rue Vieille-du-Temple, sumptuous copies of royal 18th century models and some pieces of his own modified 18th century design. He used for his pieces of furniture and « objets d’art » the very finest ormolu mounts with high quality mercurial gilding. He purchased the firm of the cabinet-maker Charles Winckelsen upon his death in 1871 and mainly produced in the Louis XV and Louis XVI style. His participation at the Paris 1878 Universal Exhibition was highly remarked with a Louis XVI style table, all in bronze and considered as a « chasing masterpiece », and a copy of the famous King Louis XV desk (original piece exhibited at the Versailles Castle), which was also admired by critics. At the 1889 Universal Exhibition, he won a « grand Prix » for his beautiful furniture. Dasson closed down his business in 1894.

Adam Weisweiler (1744-1820) became Master in cabinet-making on March 26th 1778. He settled his workshops in Paris, on Faubourg-Saint-Antoine Street. Weisweiler was one of the great masters of the Louis XVI style. From German origin, he is assumed having received his training in the workshop of Roentgen. He came to France before 1777, year of his wedding in the capital city. He worked primarily for the « marchand-merciers » like Daguerre, whom sold Weisweiler’s works to Queen Marie-Antoinette. Very talented in his art, he developed a personal style, combining various materials such pietra-dura, lacquer or Sèvres porcelain plaques. Unlike most of cabinet-makers, the Revolution didn’t affect his production; Weisweiler worked under the First Empire for Queen Hortense. A large part of his production is now displayed in public collections such in the Louvre Museum, the Paris Decorative Arts Museum, the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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“La Maison des Bambous”
Designer and Art Objects Editor
(Company active since 1872)
(attributed to)

A Japanese style cabinet-secretary

France
Circa 1880

Height : 167 cm (65,7 in.) ; Width : 65 cm (25,6 in.) ; Depth : 32 cm (12,6 in.)

A Japanese style carved wood cabinet, with a painted decor imitating Japanese lacquer, ornamented with flowers, birds and butterflies. Opening onto two drawers and a paper filer, the upright-secretary door is also fitted with red velvet. Surmounted by a drawer and asymmetrical shelves, composed in the Japanese « zen » spirit, the cabinet stands on four legs joined by an engraved stretcher.

The great influence of the Far-East, through China and Japan, in the second half of the 19th century French art could be found first in painting and soon after in decorative arts and furniture as well.

Following the Franco-English military campaign led in 1860 against the Imperial army in China, the French troops of Napoleon III brought back from the Summer Palace, a part of the Chinese Imperial court treasure, which will make up the famous Chinese Museum of Empress Eugénie at the Fontainebleau Palace. The French artists won’t be long to take inspiration from those exotic and sumptuous objects for their creations, as they used to do in the 18th century, when the best French cabinet-makers adapted the Chinese lacquers on the luxurious royal chests.

But the influence of Japan, at the Meiji period (1868-1912), came also very quickly to France, thanks to the opening of the country in the middle of the 19th century, as well as the development of traveling and the amazing Universal Exhibitions, in which Japan participated for the first time in 1867 in Paris. Then many Japanese objects and prints were imported to France and to all Europe, and for which some collectors spent already fortunes.

With Manet and Impressionists generation, the passion for Japanese art, more than a simple taste for an exotic style, was still in fashion until the turn of the 19th century. It provoked not only a craze among the French aristocratic families as well as the wealthy Paris high society, wishing renew their mansion inner decoration, but turned also to a real revolutionary movement among the “avant-garde” artists. Those artists, whoever they were, painters, cabinet-makers or designers of ceramic, bronze and crystal objects, adapted then those techniques and naturalistic motifs unknown until this time.

Christofle, very famous since 1867 as a silversmith, was also one of the leaders among the inventors of Japanism. He knew how to use Japanese elements to his own splendid works made in silver or “cloisonné” enameled bronze. During the 1878 Paris Universal Exhibition, Christofle presented with great success his life-sized bronze Japanese ladies torcheres, executed by the renowned sculptor Guillemin.

Another famous company to be mentioned, is “L’Escalier de Cristal”, producing art objects and furniture, all of high standard quality and innovating much with their Japanese decor. Highly remarked during the Universal Exhibitions, “L’Escalier de Cristal” collaborated with the greatest artists, such Gallé and Rousseau for glass- and ceramic wares, and the cabinet-makers Lièvre and Viardot, whom made furniture including sometimes authentic Japanese elements.

biography

In 1872, Alfred Perret and Ernest Vibert opened in Paris, at 33 rue du Quatre-Septembre a store that offered “natural bamboo furniture and cane seats” and all kinds of textile fittings for furniture. This furniture used for winter gardens and terraces of mansions knew then a resounding success. They developed their business around 1884 with their Japanese style furniture, very close to that executed by Gabriel Viardot (1830-1906). In 1886, the company appearing in the category of “Chinoiserie and Japoneries” offered, in addition to furniture and seating creation, works of art and inlaid furniture directly imported from the Far East ; an activity that expanded rapidly. Their exotic fantasy furniture presented at the Universal Exhibition of Paris in 1889 and 1900, rewarded them two silver medals. In 1894, the company was listed under the name “Perret et Vibert”, headed by the son of Alfred Perret and Ernest Vibert. The same year, they redesigned their store on rue du Quatre-Septembre, creating ten new show-rooms, showing complete furniture sets of Japanese and Chinese style inspiration. It was not until 1895, that the company was finally named “La Maison des Bambous” and organized then in their shops an “exhibition of country furniture and seats for castles and villas”, which was visited by Empress Eugenie to furnish her villa Cyrnos at Cap Martin. She actually was a regular customer of the “Maison des Bambous” as she bought repeatedly furniture. In October of the same year, the king of Greece George I “chose a variety of these cute small woodcarved and decorated bamboo furniture and seats” as well as several bronze and porcelain pieces from Japan to garnish his Winter Palace near Athens. As for the American millionaire, Mr. Vanderbilt, he commissioned the Perret & Vibert house, to embellish the lobby and the greenhouse in New York, a great collection of white and gold lacquered flexible rattan seats, and objects art of Japanese origin. “La Maison des Bambous” which already had in 1910 a branch established 170 boulevard Haussmann, moved definitely there its headquarters in 1917 to remain until its closure in 1994.

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Cabinet-maker
(1839-1920)
(attributed to)

Important flat desk

France
Circa 1880

Height : 79 cm (31 in.) ; Length : 198 cm (78 in.) ; Depth : 101 cm (39,7 in.)

Important double-side flat desk in kingwood and satinwood veneer, opening with three frieze drawers. Mounted with Rocaille style chiseled ormolu representing shells, foliage and flower garlands. Raised on four cabriole legs ornamented with chiseled ormolu.

related work

This flat desk is inspired by the one executed by the cabinet-maker Joseph Baumhauer, which was offered by King Louis XV to Empress Elisabeth I of Russia in 1745. It is now exhibited in the Los Angeles Getty Center.

Biography

Gervais Durand (1839-1920) participated in the 1889 Universal Exhibition where he was awarded a silver medal. A. Picard’s exhibition report stated that, « Mr Durand, cabinet-maker, as skillful as modest, displays for the first time very fine furniture, which has been designed and made by him. He is walking in the footsteps of giants such as Beurdeley and Dasson ». Durand made almost exclusively reproductions of 18th Century masterpieces.

Joseph Baumhauer died in 1772 in Paris. This important French cabinet-maker born in Germany was appointed Dealer and Cabinet-maker to the King around 1749. He executed bureau plats, corner cabinets, chests of drawers and secretaires.

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France
Circa 1880

Height : 81 cm (31,8 in.) ; Length : 183 cm (72 in.) ; Depth : 96 cm (37,8 in.)

A rare double-side Louis XV style flat desk, made of kingwood and satinwood veneer ; opening with three drawers decorated with a beautiful flower motif end-cut wood marquetry. With fine chased and gilded bronze enrichments made of rococo motifs. Topped with a tooled red leather writing surface. Raised on four ormolu-mounted cabriole legs.

related work

After the famous 18th century model known as the « Choiseul desk » made by Jacques Dubois (1693-1763) around 1750 for the Château du Raincy. Now preserved at the Paris Louvre Museum (OA 6083).
(Reproduced in « Le mobilier Français du XVIIIème siècle », par P. Kjellberg, Ed. de l’amateur, 1989, p°269)

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Bronze-casters & Art objects Editors
(attributed to)

Exceptional marquetry cabinet

France
Circa 1880

Height : 112 cm (44 in.) ; Length : 101 cm (39,7 in.) ; Depth : 46 cm (18 in.)

Blackened wood side-cabinet, opening with a central cupboard door underlined with gilt-bronze rods, flanked by two small onyx columns encircled with bronze. With a very fine and elaborate « Boulle » ornamentation inlaid with wood, copper, brass and lapis lazuli and ornamented with arabesque, acanthus and palmet motifs. An ormolu molded base resting on six top feet. Topped with Brèche marble.

Very close to a « Meuble à hauteur d’appui » of similar design and ornamentation, however presenting single wooden posts on each side. Signed Susse Frères on the lock (Private collection, Paris).

Biography

Awarded medals several times at the famous Paris « Expositions des Produits de l’Industrie », Susse Frères (Brothers), Victor (1806-1860) and Amédée (1808- 1880), were known since 1841 as makers of « Art bronze pieces for clocks, candelabras, statuettes, etc ». Installed Place de la Bourse in Paris, they also presented at the second storage of their luxurious shop « fine furniture, ormolu mounted porcelain pieces and art objects ». As a worldwide renown foundry, the Susse company began to cast pieces as soon as the first half of the 19th Century The most well-known French sculptors gave their sculpted models to Susse in order to cast them, such Pradier who signed in 1841 the oldest known publishing contract for bronzes between a publisher and an artist. After the death of the two brothers, Albert Susse took over the business from 1880 until 1922.

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Ornemanist
(1821-1888)

F. Barbedienne

Bronze-caster
(1810-1892)

E. Frager

Cabinet-maker

Exceptional display-sideboard

France
Circa 1865

Height : 285 cm (112,2 in.) ; Width : 215 cm (84,6 in.) ; Depth : 70 cm (27,5 in.)

Exposed on the stand of Frager – Maison Meynard at the Salon des industries du mobilier of 1902.
(Reproduced in « La Construction Moderne », planche n° 38)

A two part, neo-Renaissance style, walnut sideboard; the lower part comprising four doors embellished with low reliefs in gilt bronze alternating with four detached columns of red marble with corinthian capitals. The upper part comprises two doors ornamented with gilt bronze low reliefs cast by Ferdinand Barbedienne, representing two nymphs after those sculpted by Jean Goujon in 1547 for the Fountain of the Innocents in Paris. On each side gilt bronze caryatids sheathed in Campan marble and recesses decorated with chains of fruit emphasize the structure of the piece. A pediment bearing the gilt bronze mask of a faun completes the ensemble.

It is part of a dining room set consisting of a monumental display sideboard, a dresser, a table and eight chairs.

Biography

The renowned firm of Meynard was established at 50 Faubourg-Saint-Antoine in Paris in 1812. Created by Guillaume Meynard, the company became famous under the name of Father-and-Son Meynard when in 1833, Guillaume-Mathieu, the eldest child of Guillaume Meynard joined him. His father left his son alone managing the family-owned business from 1848. Guillaume-Mathieu was joined by his son Léon-Guillaume in 1866. The firm was then called Meynard and Son. Under the same name, Léon-Guillaume, then representing the third generation, took leadership from 1873 until 1889 when he sold his business to Eugène Frager. After winning numerous awards at the Products of Industry Exhibitions and later at the Universal Exhibitions (a gold medal won in Paris in 1878), the Frager furnishing and decoration company perpetuated the excellent reputation of the firm by being awarded a silver medal at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1889.

The low reliefs and other bronze ornaments of this sideboard, of very high standard quality, were cast in the workshops of Ferdinand Barbedienne after designs by Constant Sévin. Those designs had been already used successfully on a bookcase exhibited by Sévin and Barbedienne at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1867. Ferdinand Barbedienne (1810-1892) started one of the most famous 19th century artistic bronze casting companies. In addition to his personal production, he worked for famous artists such as Clésinger and Carrière-Belleuse. These artists production – as illustrated in their catalogue – varied from busts and ornamental sculptures such as clocks, candlesticks, sconces to decorations for furniture, as shown on our sideboard. Barbedienne’s production was always highly esteemed and he was, himself admired by contemporary art critics who compared him during the 1878 Universal Exhibition to a “prince of industry and the king of bronze-casting”.

Louis-Constant Sévin (1821-1888) designed silver-smith’s objects for famous firms like Denière and Froment-Meurice, before working for Barbedienne as sculptor-ornemanist since 1855. Sévin’s works are considerable, he designed furniture bronzes for the « hôtel de La Païva » and was particularly remarked at the London Exhibition in 1862, where he was awarded a medal. The most extraordinary object designed by Sévin for Barbedienne, was a Renaissance style gilded bronze monumental clock, for which Sévin won a gold medal at the Universal Exhibition in 1878.

Bibliography

L’univers des bronzes, Yves Devaux, Ed. Pygmalion, Paris, 1978.

Exposition Universelle de 1878, Rapport sur les bronzes d’art, Groupe III, Classe 25, p° 26.

Les ébénistes du XIXe siècle, Ledoux-Lebard, Ed. de l’amateur, Paris, 1989, p° 209 & 481.

« Le salon des arts du mobilier », La Revue de l’art ancien et moderne, Paris, impr. Georges Petit, t. XII, juillet-décembre 1902, pp.185-186.

Salon des industries du mobilier, Grand Palais des Champs Elysées, juillet-novembre 1902, organisé par la chambre syndicale de l’ameublement, Paris, impr. Wattier frères, 1902.

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Cabinet-makers
(Active since 1883)

Important regulator-wardrobe

Signed Forest à Paris

France
Circa 1890

Height : 285 cm (112,2 in.) ; Length : 200 cm (78,7 in.) ; Depth : 65 cm (25,6 in.)

A rare Louis XIV style wardrobe with a break-fronted ogee pediment, made in mahogany and satinwood veneer. Opening with two side cupboards flanking a regulator clock, richly decorated with marquetry adorned with roses, laurel wreaths, acanthuses and ribbons. Beautiful gilt-bronze ornaments made of oval and heart motifs, water leaves banded frames, rosettes and laurel branches surrounding an Apollo mask. At the pediment surrounding the regulator dial, a superb and large gilt-bronze cartouche is composed of three putti symbolizing Time and a drapery. The wardrobe stands on a large plinth and six feet, two of which are large gilt-bronze clawfeet.

Inspired by a wardrobe enclosing a regulator clock, made by André-Charles Boulle, circa 1715. Preserved at the Wallace Collection, London (Inv. F429).

Biography

Maison Forest was established since 1883 in Paris, at 14 rue Pierre-Picard, then at 31 rue Cambaceres. The furniture produced by the firm stands out for its high quality gilt-bronze mounts and furthermore for its notable ébénisterie and fine decoration. Maison Forest presented their products at the Universal Exhibition held in Chicago in 1893.

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