Gallé Furniture

GallĂŠ Furniture

Alastair Duncan and Georges de Bartha

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION Cabinetry (Ébénisterie) v. Carpentry (Menuiserie)

13

Marquetry

13

Cabinetmakers

16

Socio-political Interventions

18

Period Commentary

22

Chapter 1: WORLD EXPOSITIONS and the ANNUAL PARIS SALONS

24

The 1889 Exposition Universelle, Paris

24

Notes to the Jury by Gallé, 1889 Exposition Universelle, Paris

26

The Paris Salons

39

La Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1892

40

The Herbes Potagères table

40

The Herb Table / La Table aux herbes potagères, by Gallé, 1892

42

La Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1893

45

La Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1894

48

Les Fruits de l’Ésprit cabinet

49

The Fruits of the Spirit / Les Fruits de l’Ésprit by Gallé, 1899

50

Exposition d’Art Décoratif Lorrain, Nancy, 1894

52

La Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1895

54

Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1900

55

La Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1902

67

Éxposition de L’École de Nancy, Paris, 1903

69

La Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1903

73

La Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1904

78

École de Nancy: Exposition d’Art Décoratif, Nancy, 1904-5

78

La Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905

84

Exposition Internationale de l’Est de la France, Nancy, 1909

84

Exposition at the Musée de Nancy, 1909

86

Chapter 2: MAJOR CLIENTS

8

10

88

Henry Vasnier

89

Édouard Hannon

94

Henry Hirsch

96

Csar Alexander III

98

Chapter 3: MOTIFS

100

The Poppy

101

The Umbel

101

The Dragonfly

103

Chapter 4: FURNITURE MOUNTS

105

Chapter 5: SYMBOLISM

107

‘Symbolic Décor’, speech by Gallé to the Stanislas Academy, 1900 Chapter 6: CONTEMPORARY FURNITURE Contemporary furniture with decoration inspired by Nature by Gallé, 1900 Chapter 7: GALLERY OF GALLÉ’S FURNITURE

108 112 113 122

Dining Rooms

123

Épis de Blé

124

Tables

130

Games tables

130

Tea tables / Serving tables

135

Tasting table

160

Tilt tables / flip-top tables

161

Marquetry

168

Work tables

173

Occasional tables

178

Nests of Tables

210

Music cabinets

222

Coffrets and Boxes

228

Textiles

232

Desks, Bonheurs Du Jour, Bureaux De Dame

234

Sellettes and Pedestals

244

Wall Étagères, Shelves

254

Chairs

258

Fire screens

268

Coiffeuses, Dressing Tables, Pier Mirrors and Consoles

270

Bedrooms

276

Umbrella Stands, Waste-Paper Baskets, Jardinières

286

Vitrines and Cabinets

288

Commodes and Linen Chests

322

Wall Mirrors

334

Tea Trays

338

BIBLIOGRAPHY

360

INDEX

364

9

Chapter 1:

WORLD EXPOSITIONS and the ANNUAL PARIS SALONS

The 1889 Exposition Universelle, Paris Gallé came to the two World Expositions in which he participated (1889 and 1900) thoroughly Gallé’s exhibitor’s card for the 1889 Exposition Universelle, Paris.

prepared, submitting extensive Notes in advance to the events’ juries to ensure that the full extent of his technical and stylistic innovations was comprehended and appreciated. The Notes for his furniture at the 1889 Exposition, which were published posthumously by his widow in Écrits pour l’art, have been translated and are included here in their entirety.

Conscious that he would in likelihood be perceived as an interloper, if not impostor, by some members of the Jury, especially those furniture-makers who would challenge the legitimacy of his entry because he had circumvented the time-honoured apprenticeship-journeyman regimen that served as the medium’s rite-of-passage, Gallé injected an apologetic, if not deferential or even obsequious, tone into his Notes as he traced the relatively brief five-year history of his cabinetry shop. This, he wrote, had been initiated by the search for a suitable material on which to mount his glass vessels, which had led in turn to his serendipitous discovery of the infinite potential of wood as a means of artistic expression. To counter charges of inexperience, the Notes included a detailed description of his furniture workshop and its state-of-the-art mechanisation and workerfriendly environment, the latter which included a parterre of Lorraine flora that served as models for his designers. As a member of the Exposition’s Classe 18 – Meubles a bon marché et meubles de luxe – he included a detailed explanation in his Notes of his selection of modestly-priced furniture including tables and other small works. Created with minimum expense, these were aimed at homeowners of good taste but modest means. For good measure, he also described the miscellaneous wooden structures that he had built for his various displays – panelled partitions, a stand in the Grand Hall, a kiosk, and display cases. The main thrust of his Notes, however, was reserved for detailed descriptions of his de luxe works, of which there were 17. These, which married an eclectic mix of revivalist styles with a

24

1. EXPOSITIONS AND SALONS: Exposition Universelle, Paris 1889

Gallé’s kiosk, La Flore Paléontologique, in the Galléry of Honour at the 1889 Exposition Universelle.

smattering of modernist impulses, were executed in the richest traditions of the métier, no doubt to reassure the sceptics.

Gallé’s entry was awarded a silver medal by the Exposition jury. Today, as one compares the furniture from 1889 illustrated in these pages with those he displayed at the 1900 event, one sees the astonishing breadth of his stylistic evolution in the intervening years.

25

1. EXPOSITIONS AND SALONS: Notes to the Jury, Exposition Universelle, Paris 1889

Flora marina, Flora exotica jardinière, described also as a grande jardinière rocaille. Signed and dated 1889. In Gallé’s family until 1955, the jardinière was sold at auction that year in Nancy, and offered again at auction at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris in 1976, at which point it was requisitioned by the French State and added to the Musée de l’École de Nancy collection. (Collection École de Nancy.)

34

1. EXPOSITIONS AND SALONS: Notes to the Jury, Exposition Universelle, Paris 1889

Petite table Lorraine folding table. Sold by Sotheys, Monaco, in 1989.

5. SMALL COMMODE in false acacia wood, with wings on the sides and reddened and silvered chased copper. Multicoloured marquetry on moiré ash. Theme of the decoration: different carnations. Composition and drawings by Emile Gallé.

6 and 7. CREDENZA AND DINING ROOM BUFFET. Marquetry on waxed pear and plum wood. Decorative patterns: stylised Turk’s cap lilies, thistles, butterflies and goldfinches. Scenes from the workshops: the turner, cabinetmaker, bandsaw, the earthenware maker’s kiln, and the ceramics painter and kiln (illustrated right).

8. LARGE ROCAILLE JARDINIÈRE in the shape of a ship in pear wood with carved seaweed, crabs and shells. Subjects in inlaid colours: marine flora, exotic flora from sketches by Prouvé and Hestaux (illustrated opposite).

Dining room buffet (referred to today both as the Callot and Les Métiers buffet). Sold at auction in Versailles, 1977, now in the Musée de l’École de Nancy. Details of the marquetry panels on the buffet are shown below. (Collection École de Nancy.)

9. LARGE TABLE FOR COUNTRY SALON. Glossed wood from Maroni, multicoloured decoration of inlaid wood on ash. Floral decoration taken by me from a collection of plants from the Alsace and Lorraine regions: Cypripedium calceolus, Moselle region, near Toul Muscari comosum, Metz Anemone nemorosa, Colmar Orchis Jacquini, Pompey Orchis bifolia, Haye Forest Cephalanthera rubra, ensifolia, Haye Forest Narcissus poeticus, Villiers-lès-Nancy Narcissus incomparabilis, Le Thillot Tulipa sylvestris, Pixerécourt.

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2. MAJOR CLIENTS

Csar Alexander III The arrival of a naval delegation in Paris in 1893 headed by the Csar’s envoy, the Grand-Duke Constantin, served to energise various associations in and around Nancy to come together to create gifts that could be taken back to the Csar, Alexander III (1881-1894), to honour the FrancoRussian Alliance signed that year against a common enemy, Germany. The figure of 50,000 FF was decided upon by the towns of Nancy, Bar-le-Duc, and Épinal, and the contiguous provinces of Meurthe-et-Moselle, La Meuse and Vosges, as the amount needed to generate the gifts. These were to include faïence from Longwy, paintings by Eugène Carrière and other local artists, an Armorial de Lorraine, and, by Gallé and his confrères in the École de Nancy, The Golden Book of Lorraine (Livre d’Or de Lorraine) and the table on which it would be displayed.

This concerted courtship of Imperial Russia was well founded following the annexation of 93% of Alsace and 26% of Lorraine by the German Empire in 1871 in the aftermath of the FrancoPrussian war. Whereas Nancy remained French after the hostilities, the flow of refugees from the occupied neighbouring areas doubled the town’s population over the next thirty years, serving as Below. Flore de Lorraine table, walnut, various wood veneers, inlaid glass, and metal, designed

by Gallé and Hestaux, October, 1893. (The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.)

a constant reminder to the local citizenry of the military invasion it could again face.

The binding on the Golden Book, which contained 84 drawings, 5 prints, 1,730 signatures of the mayors of towns and communes within the region, 520 signatures of the heads of various local societies and representatives of the press, served as a collaborative effort by members of the École de Nancy, its Moroccan leather cover designed and executed by Victor Prouvé, Camille

Opposite bottom. Table top inlaid in various woods, including pear, thuya, mahogany and maple.

Inscribed ‘Flore de Lorraine. Gardez les coeurs qu’avez gagnes’, and incorporating the names of the region’s plants, towns and provinces. Illustrated in La Revue Encyclopedique, 1 Novembre, 1893, p. 637-638, and La Revue Lorraine Illustrée, 1908.

98

Martin and René Wiener, with silver mounts by S. Ronga. The table proved an even more remarkable achievement, taking Gallé and his cabinetmakers only twenty days to design and manufacture. Though relegated to the secondary role of a pedestal to support the Golden Book, the table stood as a tour de force in its own right, its top surface displaying the indigenous plants of Lorraine, each species identified in marquetry by its popular name and locale, including the firs of Vosges and the grasses of Remirement. The plants are placed in geographical relationship to each other, with flora for eastern towns on the left and those for western ones on the right. The

2. MAJOR CLIENTS

Sheet placed within the table, pen and pencil on paper, listing within a ‘broken hearts’ border the names of the twenty-three craftsmen (some indecipherable) who participated in its manufacture, including master joiners, marquetry specialists, carvers, bronze workers, and modellers.

Each name was accompanied by the worker’s job description and address, plus the following idealistic commentary: ‘Emile Gallé and his workers and colleagues have enclosed this page in the table presented by Lorraine to the Russian People and which they have created in a sentiment of fraternity and patriotic hope; they hope that their work in wood and bronze shall be less long-lived than the friendship and greatness of the two Peoples, Russia and France’.

veneered inscription along one border, ‘Gardez les coeurs qu’avez gagnes’, served as a caveat to the Csar on his obligation to come to the defense of Russia’s ally, Alsace-Lorraine, in the event of future hegemony.

The completed gifts were exhibited at the Hôtel de Ville, Nancy, on 20th-22nd October, 1893, following which they were taken to Paris by a delegation of the Comité Lorraine for presentation to the Russian ambassador. An article by Roger Marx in La Revue Encyclopedique, 1 November, 1893, pp. 635-640, entitled ‘La Lorraine a la Russie’, traced the entire event, including Csar Alexander’s telegram of 27th October, 1893, addressed to the President of France, in which he expressed his gratitude for the gifts.

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TABLES – Work tables

Plate 121. Table d’appoint.

176

TABLES – Work tables

Plate 121a. Interior view of the table d’appoint.

A spectacular work in cabinetry in its complexity of design, carved detailing and marquetry panels, this work table emerged from obscurity when offered in an auction by Etienne de Baecque, Lyons, on October 18, 2009.

Its existence was known previously from illustrations of the piece in a morocco-bound portfolio published by A. Desrées of Nancy, c.1903, which contained 47 black and white plates with views of Gallé’s factory and a cross-section of his exceptional works in furniture, glassware and lamps. A copy of the portfolio sold at Sothebys, New York, on December 2, 1989, for $37,500 (hammer price).

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COIFFEUSES, DRESSING TABLES, PIER MIRRORS AND CONSOLES

Plate 8. Pier glass console, walnut with marquetry panels, c.1898-1900. This imposing piece of furniture, in walnut with sculpted and marquetry decoration was probably designed for a hallway or foyer. In the collection of the Musée D’Orsay, Paris, to which it was gifted by Mme. Antonin Rispal, in 2005. It is described in a museum publication as a ‘cadre de glace de trumeau ou de console.’

Plate 8a. Detail of the console.

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COIFFEUSES, DRESSING TABLES, PIER MIRRORS AND CONSOLES

Plate 9. The green glass panels in this coiffeuse appear incongruous, suggesting from other models in which GallĂŠ incorporated sets of bevelled glass mirrors, that they were later replacements.

Plate 10.

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ISBN: 978-1-85149-662-4

9

781851 496624

12500

£65.00 / $125.00