Ref. 1270

tahan

Cabinet- & fine boxes maker
(1813-1892)

Remarkable travel casket

Signed Tahan, Fr du Roi, à Paris

France
Circa 1860

Height : 25,5 cm (10 in.) ; Width : 66 cm (26 in.) ; Depth : 44 cm (17,3 in.)

Remarkable travel casket also known as « paper-holder » made in blackened wood, finely decorated with brass, red tortoiseshell and mother-of-pearl marquetry and fine chiseled and gilded bronze ornaments. The top opening onto a satinwood veneered inside and three drawers, with a monogramed flap and a further large flap to the frontside.

Biography

Jean-Pierre-Alexandre Tahan took over his father business, already specialized in jewel caskets and liquor cellarettes as well as in luxurious small furniture registered under the « tabletterie » category. Thanks to him, the Tahan company knew much success and became one of the most famous firms in Paris. They settled rue de la Paix, then boulevard des Italiens, both fancy Parisian addresses under the Second Empire. Tahan became also very quickly one of the favorite providers of Emperor Napoléon III and Empress Eugénie. He delivered to the imperial palaces numerous tables, vitrines, cellarettes and further fine decorative objects. In other words, he was definitively the great specialist of precious and highly selected objects. The Tahan house participated in various Universal Exhibitions, where they were steadily awarded medals : a silver medal in 1849, another one in London in 1852 and the gold medal in Paris in 1867.