SÉLECTION D'OEUVRES D'ART 1850-1890
Exceptional Ceremonial Console
N째1
France Circa 1870 Height : 122 cm (54 1/2 in.) ; Length : 224 cm (88 in.) ; Depth : 67 cm (26 1/3 in.) Ceremonial side console table of wood lacquered black and parcel gilt with a frieze ornamented with a garland of laurel joined at each end with crossed ribbons. This wide frieze is ornamented in the center with a crest wearing the initial "M" within a laurel wreath and embellished with foliage, fruits and flowers. This hides a lock which opens a wide drawer in the front. It rests on two pairs of scrolled legs lacquered in black with gilt motifs such as large naturalized leaves and palmets. Each pair supports a string of fruit. The legs rest on a moulded base centered by a basket of fruits. The top is of Sarrancolin marble cut to the shape of the frieze.
FURNITURE
Provenance By family tradition, this impressive sideboard console would have been commissioned for the Swedish Embassy in Paris, and put in place under the Second Empire.
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A Very Fine Console Table
N°2
France Circa 1880 Height: 90 cm (35 1/2 in.); Width: 144 cm (56 2/3 in.); Depth: 60 cm (23 2/3 in.) An exceptional Louis XIV style carved wood console with its original gilding. Serpentine frieze with shell, acanthus leaves and flower garlands. Four scrolling legs with toupie feet, joined by a stretcher centred by a shell. Campan marble top.
FURNITURE
The console term does not appear until the beginning of 18th century, although this piece of furniture is widely in use at the end of the previous century. It designates tables placed against a wall, usually under a mirror and between two windows or doors. Only the three visible sides are decorated. The table often rests on console feet, hence the name. Rigorous ornaments are applied in decorative arts under the Louis XIV period. That classicism can also be found in the mobilier d’argent created for the king at the end of 17th century. Unfortunately it was molten in order to finance the numerous and expensive wars of that period. Nevertheless, with its numerous curves, the console offers sculptors and cabinetmakers a great field to exercise their imagination and virtuosity. At the beginning of 18th century, sculpted furniture tends to lighten; the dimensions reduce, sculpted decoration stay symmetrical but become more smooth and exuberant. The Régence and the beginning of Louis XV period, with the rocaille style, are considered to be the golden age of consoles.
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Exceptional Byzantine Style Large Gueridon
N째3
Venice - Italy Circa 1860 Height: 78 cm (30 3/4 in.); Diameter: 145 cm (57 in.) Impressive Byzantine style Venitian center table made in local massive wood, entirely decorated with ivory inlay. The octogonal top decorated with Venitian geometrical motifs and sprirals stands on a central gadrooned carved foot and eight stylized ivory inlaid dolphins. The all reposing on a polylobed base and eight lion paws.
FURNITURE
Related work:
The Byzantine and therefore Oriental style much present in Venice through the ages is due to the historical links between Venice and the East since its origins. These arabesques and further geometric patterns are characteristics of the "Cosmati" art, which originally is a decoration made of polychrome marble inlays, invented by Roman marble workers and widespread in Italy since the twelfth century. One of the most wonderful examples is to be seen in Basilica San Marco in Venice.
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A Rare Marquetry Louis XV Style Bureau Plat
N°4
France Circa 1880 Height: 81 cm (31 3/4 in.); Length: 183 cm (72 in.); Depth: 96 cm (37 3/4 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.
FURNITURE
After the famous 18th century model known as the "Choiseul desk" made by Jacques Dubois (1693-1763) – (Reproduced in "Le mobilier Français du XVIIIème siècle", par P. Kjellberg, Ed. de l’amateur, 1989, p°269).
The "Choiseul flat desk", stamped by Jacques Dubois, around 1750. Provenance: Château du Raincy. Now preserved at the Paris Louvre Museum (OA 6083).
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A Fine Louis XVI Style Flat Desk
N°5
France Circa 1880 Height: 76 cm (30 in.); Width: 140 cm (55 in.); Depth: 76,5 cm (30 in.)
FURNITURE
A Mahogany and Satinwood veneered flat desk. The fine brown leather-lined top above three frieze drawers, allover decorated with gilt-bronze ornaments such scrolls, acanthus leaves and flowers. Keylocks in shape of beaded medallions surmounted by ribbon-tied garlands. Raised on four tapering legs embellished with beaded mounts.
Related work: A mahogany flat desk executed by Emmanuel Alfred Beurdeley (1847-1919) aound 1880, after a model by Guillaume Benneman (1750-1811) delivered in 1787 to King Louis XVI’s library at the Fontainebleau Palace (now exhibited in the Louvre Museum, inv. OA5329). (Reproduced in «L’Ameublement d’art français – 1850-1900», Camille Mestdagh, Les Editions de l’Amateur, Paris, 2010, p°255).
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F. Linke
N°6
Cabinet-maker & Bronze-caster (1855-1946)
Bureau plat Signed Linke France Circa 1890 Height: 76 cm (30 in.); Length: 141 cm (55 1/2 in.); Depth: 81 cm (31 3/4 in.)
A Régence style bureau plat, in kingwood and satinwood veneer, opening with three frieze drawers. Chiseled ormolu mounts representing acanthus leaves and satyr masks.
FURNITURE
Bibliography Les ébénistes du XIXe siècle, Ledoux-Lebard, p. 439.
Related work :
This flat desk and its matching bookcase are very close to François Linke’s personal furniture presented in his personal office. (in François Linke (1855-1946), The Belle Epoque of French Furniture, Ch. Payne, back cover illustration)
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P. Sormani
N°7
Cabinet-maker (1817-1877)
Beautiful Louis XVI style Showcase Signed on the keylock P. Sormani France Circa 1870 Height : 119 cm (46 3/4 in.) ; Width : 102 cm (40 in.) ; Depth : 36 cm (14 in.)
FURNITURE
A very fine Louis XVI style vitrine made in Rose- and Kingwood veneer, topped with moulded shaped « Fleur de Pêcher » marble. Opening with a central glazed door and flanked with curved glazed sides. Mounted with fine chiselled bronze ornaments such cupids, water leaves friezes and acanthuses. Raised on four cabriole feet.
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G. Grohé
N°8
Cabinet-maker (1808-1885)
Collector’s Cabinet France Circa 1860 Height: 116 cm (45 2/3 in.); Length: 182 cm (71 2/3 in.); Depth: 58 cm (22 3/4 in.) Ebonized and brass inlaid with loupe d’orme and kingwood parquetry. Three frieze drawers and six lateral drawers. Central panel door with flower marquetry and ivory inlaid on ebonized ground. White marble top.
FURNITURE
Bibliography Les ébénistes du XIXe siècle, Denise Ledoux-Lebard, Ed. de l’Amateur, 1984, p. 237.
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Zwiener Jansen Successeur
N°9
Cabinet-Maker (1810-1892)
E Ptyle air of LouisCXV Style Commodes Axceptional Louis XV S Bombé ommode Signed " Z.J "
The mark is incised to the reverse of the lower drawer central mount France Circa 1880 Height : 93 cm (36 2/3 in.) ; Width : 167 cm (65 3/4 in.) ; Depth : 66 cm (26 in.) Pair of Louis ormolu-mountedkingwood kingwood"«bombé bombé "» shaped shaped commodes. a serpentine A Louis XVXV stylestyle ormolu-mounted commode.Each The with serpentine brèche brèche marble top above two inlaid drawers without crossbar. The fan satinwood veneered central marble top above two inlaid drawers without crossbar. The fan satinwood veneered centraldecoration decorawith floral « end-cut » marquetry within a foliate and rocaille-cast frame terminating in handles, the projecting tion with floral « end-cut » marquetry within a foliate and rocaille-cast frame terminating in handles, angles set with rocaille clasps and the bent legs with scrolled sabot.
FURNITURE
the projecting angles set with rocaille clasps and the bent legs with scrolled sabot.
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P. Sormani
N°10
Cabinet-maker (1817-1877)
Jewels Cabinet Signed on the keylock P. Sormani – 10 r. Charlot, Paris France Circa 1870 Height: 146 cm (57 1/2 in.); Width: 93 cm (36 2/3 in.); Depth: 41 cm (16 in.)
FURNITURE
Exquisite Louis XVI style jewels cabinet made in mahogany. Opening with a central door ornated with a polychrom painted porcelain plaque onto a sycomore wood interior. Flanked on each side by five leathered drawers. Mounted with fine gilt-bronze ornaments.
Cabinet inspired by the 18th C. models executed by Adam Weisweiler and made by Paul Sormani in the 19th C., who presented the model of this cabinet at the 1867 Paris Universal Exhibition (left picture: engraving published in The Art Journal of 1867). A similar cabinet (right picture) is reproduced in L’ameublement d’art français, 1850-1900, (book by Camille Mestdagh, Les Ed. de l’Amateur, Paris, 2010, p°61).
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P. Sormani
N°11
Cabinet-maker (1817-1877)
Rare Pair Of Bookcase-Cabinets Stamped Sormani à Paris and signed on the lockplates P. Sormani, 10 rue Charlot, Paris France Circa 1870 Height: 114 cm (44 3/4 in.); Width: 124 cm (48 3/4 in.); Depth: 40 cm (15 3/4 in.) Rare pair of Louis XV style side bookcase-cabinets of exceptional quality made in kingwood and tulipwood veneer, topped with moulded and serpentine shaped "Brèche d’Alep" marbles. Each cabinet is made up of a centering open shelf above two sliding curtain doors ornated with "chevron" motif tulipwood veneer. Flanked on each side by a fine "end-cut" marquetry decorated frieze drawer above a wired mesh door opening onto three shelves. Mounted with fine chiselled bronze ornaments kept in their original gilding. Raised on four cabriole feet.
FURNITURE
Bibliography Les ébénistes du XIXe siècle, D. Ledoux-Lebard, Ed. de l'amateur, 1984, p.583.
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A. Levraux
Cabinet-maker
N째12
(19th century)
Set of Four Louis XVI Style Armchairs Stamped A. Levraux Paris France Circa 1860 Height: 75 cm (29 1/2 in.); Width: 63 cm (24 3/4 in.); Depth: 65 cm (25 2/3 in.)
FURNITURE
A very fine set of four Louis XVI style armchairs made in carved and gilded wood, upholstered with red velvet.
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after
J.B.C. Séné
N°13
Cabinet-maker (1748-1803)
Rare Pair of Louis XVI Style Armchairs France Circa 1880 Height: 111 cm (43 3/4 in.); Width: 73 cm (28 3/4 in.); Depth: 60 cm (23 2/3 in.) Sumptuous pair of giltwood "à la Reine" armchairs, made after the model of the seats ordered for the large Inner Cabinet of Marie-Antoinette in Saint-Cloud Castle and delivered there in 1788 to the royal spouses. These armchairs of an entirely new design were due to the collaboration of Jean-Baptiste-Claude Séné for carpentry, Nicolas-Francois Valois for sculpture and Chatard for gilding (now all exhibited between the Louvre Museum, the Compiègne and Fontainebleau palaces and the France Mobilier National).
FURNITURE
The design of these chairs completely new in 1787 reveals a great stylistic inventiveness. The architectured supports of the backseat are composed of detached fluted columns surmounted by a Ionic capital and a pine cone; the baluster armrest are based on a base supported by the connection cube; the spiral fluted legs are encircled by a crown of flowers and the seat is fully decorated with interlacing friezes. These seats are emblematic of the Louis XVI style with the architectural vocabulary inspired by antiquity but also with the patterns of interlacing and garlands of flowers. These solutions influenced the production of Séné in the 19th century and had a strong impact among the leading furniture manufacturers.
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after
G. Jacob
N째14
Cabinet-maker (1739-1814)
Pair of Louis XVI Style Armchairs France Circa 1870 A very fine pair of Louis XVI style carved and gilded wood armchairs, with the back in the form of an inverted gendarme's hat ; the seatback and the seat belt are delicately carved with water leaves, acanthuses and rosettes. Reposing on tapered and fluted legs carved with foliage motifs.
FURNITURE
Those armchairs are close in design to the chair model made in 1790 by the cabinet-maker Georges Jacob (1739-1814).
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Set of Three Louis XVI Style Armchairs With "à la Reine" Backseats
N°15
France Circa 1880 Height: 103 cm (40 1/2 in.); Width: 67 cm (26 1/3 in.); Depth: 70 cm (27 1/2 in.)
FURNITURE
Rare set of three Louis XVI style armchairs made in carved and gilded wood. With a medallion "à la Reine" upright backseat, adorned with musical trophies. A very fine decor made up of ribbons and foliage. Raised on four tapering, spiral fluted feet, ornated with water leaves and surmounted by laurel wreaths motifs.
Related work : This model is close to the model executed by the famous 18th century cabinet-maker JeanRené Nadal (1733-1783) for the inner cabinets of Comte d’Artois at Versailles (now preserved at the « Mobilier National », in Paris).
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after
J.J. Pothier
N°16
Cabinet-maker
(Active around 1750)
A Transition style Sofa “en Corbeille” France Circa 1860 Length : 167 cm (65 3/4 in.) ; Depth : 90 cm (35 1/2 in.) A beautiful wooden gold leaf sofa “en corbeille” (in basket shape) finely carved, made in the Transition style: the exuberant Louis XV style marked by curved lines, acanthus leaves and flowers, softened by Neoclassicism shown with the carved “greek” motif belt, chains of coins and rosettes.
FURNITURE
This sofa is very close in design to the armchair made about 1770 by the cabinet-maker Jean-Jacques Pothier (actif around 1750), showing similar stylistic characteristics and now exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (Inv. 07.225.60).
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Lacarrière
N°17
Founder
(19th century)
Rare Pair of Three Lights Candelabras Signed Lacarrière Delatour et Cie, Paris 1895
ARTS DECORATION ARCHITECTUREDECORATIVE AND MONUMENTAL
Height: 3,20 m (10 ft. 5 in.); Width: 1,25 m (4 ft. 1 in.); Depth: 50 cm (19 2/3 in.) This pair of candelabras comes from the former bridge of Suresnes, just on the outskirts of Paris. The art of lighting went through a considerable change with the industrialisation of gaz prior to the introduction of elecricity. French cities and salons alike were equiped with candelabras. But it was not until 1890 that apartements were supplied with electricity, yet to remain a great luxury for quite some time. Bibliography Catalogue de l’Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1878. L’univers des bronzes, Yves Devaux, Ed. Pygmalion, Paris, 1978, p° 278. "La petite sculpture au XIXème s. Les éditeurs", Bernard Metman, Archives de l’Art français, 1989, t. XXX, p° 200.
Related work : Alexandre III Bridge lamp posts by Lacarrière Delatour cie. 52
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A. E.Carrier-Belleuse
N째18
Sculptor
(1824-1887)
Exceptional Pair of Torcheres Inscribed Carrier France Circa 1870 Total height: 247 cm (97 1/4 in.); Diameter: 52 cm (20 1/2 in.) Torcheres height: 180 cm (70 3/4 in.); Columns height: 67 cm (26 1/3 in.)
DECORATIVE ARTS ORIENTALISM
Executed in patinated bronze, two cupids holding up a gilded bronze bouquet made of thirteen light-arms and finely chased flowers. The all reposing on fluted green Tinos marble columns, mounted with gilt-bronze laurel wreath ornated square bases. The sculpture children or women porte-torcheres dates back to the 17th century, but they were most popular during the "Second Empire", due to the increase in luxuriousness in Parisian interiors.
Related work:
The renowed architect Charles Garnier asked Carrier-Belleuse to sculpt the torcheres of the newbuilt Paris Opera house, whose plaster models (1873) are now exhibited at the Orsay museum. The bronze torcheres are still to be seen at the staircase of the Opera house.
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DECORATIVE ARTS ORIENTALISM
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F. Linke
N째20
Cabinet-maker & Bronze-caster (1855-1946) attributed to
Rare Set of Four Louis XV Style Bronze Wall Lights France Circa 1890 Height: 67 cm (26 1/3 in.) / 77 cm (30 1/3 in.) with candles; Width: 46 cm (18 in.)
DECORATIVE ARTS ORIENTALISM
A very fine set of four three light arms leafy sconces, made in chiselled and gilded bronze in the Louis XV style.
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H. Dasson
N°21
Bronze-caster and Cabinet-maker (1825-1896) attributed to
Important Pair of "Arabesque" Wall Lights France Circa 1880 Height: 107 cm (42 in.); Width: 55 cm (21 2/3 in.); Depth: 32 cm (12 2/3 in.)
DECORATIVE ARTS ORIENTALISM
Exceptional pair of five light arms Louis XVI style "Arabesque" model wall sconces. Chiseled and gilded bronze, shaped as a shell surrounded by female masks, issuing flowers garlands and laurel leaves; each terminated in oak leaves branches. A long tied ribbon supports the sconce.
Related work: Model by P. Thomire (1751-1843) executed in 1787 for the King’s games room at the Saint-Cloud Palace. Those six wall lights are now spread out in the Petit Trianon at Versailles, the Louvre Museum and the J. Paul Getty Museum. (Commented and reproduced in H. Ottomeyer, and alii, Vergoldete Bronzen, T. I, Klinkhardt & Biermann, Munich, 1986, p° 291.)
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H. Dasson
N°22
Bronze-caster and Cabinet-maker (1825-1896) attributed to
Important Pair of "Lyre" Wall lights France Circa 1880 Height: 115 cm (45 1/4 in.); Width: 31 cm (12 1/4 in.); Depth: 17 cm (6 2/3 in.) Pair of four light arms Louis XVI style wall sconces. Chiseled and gilded bronze, shaped as a lyre surmounted by a female mask, issuing flowers and two branches each terminated in two light arms. A long tied ribbon supports the lyre.
DECORATIVE ARTS ORIENTALISM
Bibliography H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel, Klinkhard, Biermann, Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, t. I, p. 282.Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, t. I, p. 282.
Related work:
Model by Pierre Gouthière (1732-1813) delivered in 1781 for the Duchess Mazarin. (Commented and reproduced in H. Ottomeyer, and alii, Vergoldete Bronzen, T. I, Klinkhardt & Biermann, Munich, 1986, p° 425.)
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A very Impresssive and Massive Pair of Granit and Gilt-Bronze Urns
N째23
France Height : 2,40 m (7 ft. 9 in.) ; Diameter : 99 cm (39 in.) Base : 74 x 74 cm (29 x 29 in.)
DECORATIVE ARTS ORIENTALISM
A very unusual pair of granit urns, each of Campana form, the rims cast with acanthus leaves, the bodies applied with foliate scrolls and flowers, with ram mask handles, on a moulded column plinth and square base. Made in the Louis XVI neo-classical manner.
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Important “Miroir d’Apparat”
N°24
France Circa 1860 Height : 225 cm (88 2/3 in.) ; Width : 135 cm (53 in.) ; Depth : 10 cm (4 in.) An important carved and gilded wood mirror, with a very fine decoration made of flower garlands wrapped around the moulded frame, sculpted with acanthus leaves. A large foliate shell ornates the top of the mirror.
DECORATIVE ARTS ORIENTALISM
Mirrors applied on walls develop during XVIth century, but with small size mirror plates and heavy framing. Frequently an ornamented shutter folds down to protect the mirror plate. During XVIIth century the monopoly for mirror production stays in Venice, until Colbert creates the “Manufacture Royale des Glaces” in 1666. In 1688, Lucas de Néhout invents the mirror casting system, allowing him to obtain large size mirrors. These mirrors, which could cover entirely a trumeau, become true display elements in the apartments. By reflecting the light coming from chandeliers and candelabras, they greatly enhanced the decoration of the room they were placed in.
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A Large “Miroir d’Apparat”
N°25
Italy Circa 1880 Height : 200 cm (74 3/4 in.) ; Width : 120 cm (47 1/4 in.)
DECORATIVE ARTS ORIENTALISM
An important gilded wood- and stucco mirror. Heart shaped bevelled mirror plate. Rich marquetry ornamentation with mother-of-pearl inlaid. Acanthus leaves, shells and flower baskets motifs surmounted by two putti holding flower garlands.
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Important Louis XVI Style Pier-Glass
N째26
France Circa 1870 Height : 287 cm (113 in.) ; Width : 167 cm (65 3/4 in.) Important Louis XVI style pier-glass made in carved, painted and gilded wood. Beautiful ornamentation with rosettes on the sides, and at the pediment with garlands of flowers, laurel and tied ribbons framing an elegant monochrome painted profile of a poet.
DECORATIVE ARTS ORIENTALISM
The piers, popular since the seventeenth century are by definition the space between two doors, two windows or overlooking the chimneys. By extension, they refer to the decorative panels occupying these spaces and ornated with carved wooden motifs, decorative paintings, or fitted with mirrors.
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DECORATIVE ARTS ORIENTALISM
A Large Louis XV Style Mirror
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N째27
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Important Set of Four Pedestals
N째28
France Circa 1880 Height: 115 cm (45 1/4 in.); Base: 34 x 30 cm (13 1/3 x 11 3/4 in.)
FURNITURE
Important set of four Classical style pedestals executed in red Griotte marble, with a tapering quadrangular shaft and moulded top and base.
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L.-C. Sévin Sculptor-ornemanist
N°29
(1821-1888)
F. Barbedienne Bronze-caster (1810-1892) attributed to
Set of Four Neo-Greek Gueridons A similar model exposed at the 1889 Paris Universal Exhibition
NEO-GREEK AND NEO-EGYPTIAN STYLES ORIENTALISM
France Height: 80 cm (31 1/2 in.); Diam.: 50 cm (19 2/3 in.) A set of four 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.
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L.-C. Sévin Sculptor-ornemanist
N°30 & 35
(1821-1888)
F. Barbedienne Bronze-caster (1810-1892) attributed to
A Greek Style Table A similar model exposed at the 1889 Paris Universal Exhibition
NEO-GREEK AND NEO-EGYPTIAN STYLES ORIENTALISM
France Height: 91 cm (35 3/4 in.); Diameter: 90 cm (35 1/2 in.) 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.
Bronze table executed by F. Barbedienne and exposed at the 1889 Paris Universal Exhibition.
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G. Servant
N째31 & 32
Bronze-caster (1828-c.1890) attributed to
Pair of Neo-Greek Floor Lamps France Circa 1870
NEO-GREEK AND NEO-EGYPTIAN STYLES ORIENTALISM
Height: 183 cm (72 in.); 213 cm (83 3/4 in.) with glass shades Diameter: 43 cm (19 2/3in.) Rare pair of Greek style floor lamps made in patinated bronze, each surmounted of a frosted glass globe engraved of stars and a Greek motif frieze. The body of the vase, decorated with Greek style patterns such as palmets, Greek motif frieze and water leaves, stands on a shaft decorated with deer heads. Fine chains are connected to a delicate butterfly. The set is based on tripod legs with lion claw feet alternating large palmets.
Bronze candelabra by A. Lacarrire Son & C째, by Raingo Bros, by P. Descole, by L. Lerolle, Paris. Chromolithographed & Published by Day & Son Lithographers to the Queen. J.b Waring, London.
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F. Levillain
N°33
Sculptor
(1837-1905)
F. Barbedienne Bronze-caster (1810-1892)
Important Pair of Neo-Greek Ormolu Amphora-Shaped Vases Signed F. Levillain and F. Barbedienne
NEO-GREEK AND NEO-EGYPTIAN STYLES ORIENTALISM
Model exposed at the 1878 Paris Universal Exhibition France Height: 146 cm (57 1/4 in.); Diam.: 43 cm (17 in.) Each with gadrooned rim above a waisted neck raised with bearded satyr masks supporting foliate and fruit swags, the shoulder cast with trailing flowers, the tapering body with upper band cast with birds, wild animals, herms, pots and vases of fruit, above central bands, on one side depicting a seated youth supporting a basket of ducks and a rabbit, conversing with a maiden carrying a fruit-laden basket, the reverse side depicting a peacock, goat and altars supporting baskets of fruit, applied with a pair of loop handles with anthemion terminals, one inscribed to the front F. Barbedienne, above a guilloche band and seated sphinxes among scrolling foliage, with fluted lower section, supported on a triple anthemion-cast lion-paw monopodiae, on tri-form acanthus-cast base, the interior of each with zinc liner. Bibliography
Catalogue sommaire illustré des arts décoratifs, Musée d’Orsay, RMN, Paris, 1988; "L’Art décoratif", La médaille française contemporaine, Ch. Saunier, 1901, p° 65 et 67; Exposition Universelle de 1878, Rapport sur les bronzes d’art, Groupe III, Classe 25, p° 26; The illustrated catalogue of the Paris International Exhibition 1878, London, Virtue & co, p.153; F. Barbedienne, Catalogue, Paris, 1880, p.19; F. Barbedienne, Catalogue des bronzes d’art, Paris, 1891, p.20; F. Barbedienne éditeur, G. Leblanc-Barbedienne successeurs, Bronzes et objets d’art, Paris, 1911, p.79; a photograph of this model is kept at the Département des estampes, Levillain Fa 57, p.76; Stanislas Lami, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l’école française au XIXe siècle, t.III, Paris, 1919, Kraus reprint, 1970, p. 347.
Related work:
Presented at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1878. A pair of similar vases is exhibited at the Paris Decorative arts Museum. (inv. 997.117.2 et 997.117.3)
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F. Levillain
N°34
Sculptor
(1837-1905)
F. Barbedienne Bronze-caster (1810-1892)
Exceptional Neo-Greek Vase Signed F. Barbedienne
NEO-GREEK AND NEO-EGYPTIAN STYLES ORIENTALISM
Model exposed at the 1878 Paris Universal Exhibition France Height : 119 cm (46 3/4 in.) ; Width : 46 cm x 36 cm (18 x 14 in.) Important two handled amphora shaped vase made of gilded and patinated bronze, with a rich decoration executed in low relief presents a parade of people carrying food. Many masks and palmets complement throughout the vase the neo-Greek motifs. Bibliography
Catalogue sommaire illustré des arts décoratifs, Musée d'Orsay, RMN, Paris, 1988. « L’Art décoratif », La médaille française contemporaine, Ch. Saunier, 1901, p° 65 et 67. Exposition Universelle de 1878, Rapport sur les bronzes d'art, Groupe III, Classe 25, p° 26. « Le livre d’or du Salon de peinture et scukpture », Exposition des Beaux-Arts, G. Lafenestre, Paris, 1884.
Related work:
Presented at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1878.
(Reproduced in Les Beaux-Arts et les Arts Décoratifs, Louis Gonse, 1879, p.368)
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H. Vian
N째36
Bronze-caster (1860-1905)
An Outstanding Pair of Ormolu Crystal Vases-Candelabras Signed on each base H. Vian France Circa 1880 Height: 66 cm (26 in.); Width: 33 x 27 cm (13 x 10 2/3 in.)
DECORATIVE ARTS ORIENTALISM
A very fine pair of Louis XVI style cut-crystal covered vases forming candelabras. Each beautifully mounted with four gilded bronze carnation flower shaped light arms, and ornaments such the ribbon-hung floral cast wreath joined by floral garlands. Each standing on four double gilt-bronze leafy hoof feet and a finely decorated circular base. Resting on a red griotte marble socle.
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H. Dasson
N째37
Bronze-caster and Cabinet-maker (1825-1896) attributed to
Louis XVI Style "Venus" Mantel Clock Set Inscribed on the dial Robin, Hger du Roy France Circa 1880 Clock / Height: 54 cm (21 1/4 in.); Width: 53 cm (20 3/4 in.); Depth: 19 cm (7 1/2 in.) Candelabras / Height: 83 cm (32 2/3 in.); Diameter: 30 cm (11 3/4 in.)
DECORATIVE ARTS
A Louis XVI style clock set, made in patinated bronze and gilded bronze, made up of a mantel clock ornated with the figures of Venus and Cupid, seated on her doves-drawn char; the clouds forming the case of the clock reposing on an ormolu mounted white Carrare marble base. The ensuite pair of candelabras composed with the assorted elements and the figures of Cupid and Venus holding a drape and the three light arms.
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G. Fabre
N°38
Clock-maker & Bronze-caster (active around 1900)
A "Geniuses of The Arts" Clock Set Dial signed G. Fabre, 4 rue des Filles du Calvaire, Paris Clockwork signed Samuel Marti – Médaille d’Or 1900 France Circa 1900
DECORATIVE ARTS
Clock / Height: 47 cm (18 1/2 in.); Width: 40 cm (15 3/4 in.); Depth: 13 cm (5 in.) Candlesticks / Height: 50 cm (19 2/3 in.); Width: 26 cm (10 1/4 in.); Depth: 14 cm (5 1/2 in.) A beautiful Louis XVI style gilt-bronze and statuary Carrare marble clock set, consisting of a clock and a pair candelabra. The clock is surmounted by two putti, leaning the dial, representing the "Geniuses of the Arts", Poetry and Painting. The base is adorned with neoclassical decorative elements such as scrolls, rows of pearls and foliate feet. The ensuite candelabra, made of ormolu and white marble, are composed of Bacchic children, after 18th century models by Clodion. Each holding two light arms, dressed in leopard skins and vine branches, a wineskin at his feet.candelabras composed with the assorted elements and the figures of Cupid and Venus holding a drape and the three light arms. Bibliography
Dictionnaire des horlogers Français, Tardy, 1971, p°219.
This clock set is to be linked to the one made by the famous parisian Baguès company, named "Geniuses of War" set, for which the clock is different, but the pair of candelabra similar (Commented and reproduced in "Vergoldete Bronzen", H. Ottomeyer and alii, Klinkhardt & Biermann, Munich, 1986, T. I, p° 422).
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Baccarat
N°39
Crystal Manufacture
Exceptional Baccarat Set Mounts signed Baccarat Crystal dated 12 8bre (October) 1883 France Vases: Height: 49 cm (19 1/3 in.); Diameter: 15 cm (6 in.) Coupe: Height: 17 cm (6 2/3 in.); Width: 35 cm (13 3/4 in.); Depth: 15,5 cm (6 in.) Spectacular white opal crystal set made up of baluster shaped vases and an oblong centerpiece. Each piece presenting a hand-painted grey-blue and brown colored banded decor with fishermen amid a mountainous landscape. The gilded bronze mount feet in form of oak leaves and acorns.
DECORATIVE ARTS ORIENTALISM
That technique of decorative painting was in fact similar whether on porcelain or on Opal crystal, the only crystal which can survive the high temperatures required to fix the paint. Bibliography
Dany Sautot, Baccarat, une histoire, éd. Baccarat, 1993. L'Art en France sous le Second Empire, Exposition Grand-Palais, Paris, 1979, p. 238-239. Exposition Universelle de 1867, Rapport adressé à la commission d'encouragement, classe 16 et 17, p. 24 -25.
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A Very Fine "Paris" Porcelain Set
N°40
France Circa 1880 Centerpiece – Height: 29 cm (11 1/2 in.); Width: 47 cm (18 1/2 in.); Depth: 28 cm (11 in.) Vases – Height: 34 cm (13 1/3 in.); Width: 26 x 22 cm (10 1/4 x 8 2/3 in.)
DECORATIVE ARTS ORIENTALISM
An exquisite polychrom and parcel-gilt porcelain three pieces set, composed of a large centerpiece with its matching pair of vases. Each decorated on celest blue background with banded polychrom scenes depicting playing and fishing cherubs. Resting on gilded bronze mounts ornated with lion heads and floral garlands.
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after
J. Pillement
N째41
Painter
(1728-1808)
French School
"Chinoiserie" France 19th century Oil on canvas Measurements with frame: Height: 270 cm (106 1/3 in.); Width: 158 cm (62 1/4 in.)
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE
Exceptional painting setting figures dressed with Chinese style costumes and posing within garden architectures. Designed in the taste of the 18th century "grotesques", executed by painters such as Jean Pillement.
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Four Still Life Paintings
N째44
French School
France Circa 1880 Dimensions with frame: Height: 224 cm (88 in.) Width of each panel: 72,5 cm (28 1/2 in.); Total width: 290 cm (114 in.)
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE
Four oil on canvas paintings with Louis XVI style foliate carved gilt-wood frame. Each panel representing vases mounted on pedestals, ornamented with bouquets and flower garlands, fruits and birds. Scenes are edged with drapery and architectural elements. These works are inspired by luxurious decorative still life paintings from the 18th century, created by artists such as Pierre Nicolas Huilliot.
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PAINTING AND SCULPTURE
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Artists and
Manufactures ď •
Artists and Manufactures Edouard Agneesens (1842-1885)
Edouard Joseph Alexandre Agneesens, as a portrait painter, Edouard Agneesens occupies an important place among the realistic movement, with important compositions carefully elaborated yet natural. As soon as 1875 the first signs of mental illness appear, and will persist untill his premature death, at 43 years old.
Désiré Attarge (c.1820-1878)
D. Attarge won also the Crozatier Prize in 1862 and 1864, which was awarding the France best chaser, and was once again awarded at the 1867 Universal Exhibition with a Silver medal as Barbedienne’s co-worker. Jury’s report was then very explicit: "It’s impossible to show more taste in composition and more maestria in the making of these leaves and elegant flowers, all chased with so extreme delicacy". 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, loc ated avenue Montaigne in Paris.
La Manufacture d’Aubusson
The most ancient references to tapestry date from 15th century. After the landscapes and verdures that were often represented during 15th and 16th century, tapestries appeared displaying characters from History, religion, literature or mythology. In 1600, Henri IV forbad the import of foreign tapestries; in 1665, Colbert granted trading license to the Aubusson workshops, which from now on owned the prestigious title of Royal Manufacture. In 1685, the "Edit de Nantes" revocation had unfortunate consequences for French tapestry: numerous protestant craftsmen from Aubusson emigrated to Germany or Switzerland. However, French state supported the Aubusson and Felletin workshops by sending designs, a dyer and a painter. During 18th century, Louis XV established the Savonnerie manufacture to create carpets. With the rise of this new fashion, Aubusson also started producing carpets in 1743.
Giuseppe Aureli (1858-1929)
Although Giuseppe Aureli owed his fame to his history paintings and portraits of the Italian royal family, he depicted a large number of harem scenes either with oil or watercolor. Giuseppe Aureli never traveled in the East, but like many of his Roman contemporaries of the late nineteenth century, he drew much his inspiration from the travelers reports, such as photographs, objects and prints. Aureli studied painting at the Academia di San Luca under the direction of Pietro Gabarini (1856-1926) and Cesare Maccari (18401919). He often exhibited his work in Rome, Turin and Bologna between 1883 and 1907, and in Paris at the 1889 Universal Exhibition and Salons of 1891, 1893 and 1897. He also presented historical paintings at the International Exhibition of 1888 in Munich and at the 1893 Chicago World Fair. Apart from exotic musical instruments, lion or leopard skin blankets and Moorish ceramics, the same greenhouse plants are to be seen in his paintings. They were probably permanently decorating his studio in Rome located 48 Via Margutta. Some of his works are now exhibited in the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna and the Aula del Consiglio Provincial in Rome.
Baccarat (Since the 18th century)
The famous crystal manufacture of Baccarat, that dates back to the 18th century, was awarded its first medal in 1823, during the "Exposition des Produits de l’Industrie" for the "brilliance and the sharpness of its crystal" and became then the most renowned French "cristallerie". Baccarat was undoubtedly the only French manufacture, that exhibited steadily and magnificently its products at the various Universal Exhibitions, and especially between 1855 and 1867. In all reports one can read about the "perfection of the material and of its cut". To keep its wealthy clientele, among which the Royal family, Baccarat must discover new styles and decors as well as new material, as shows that beautiful Opaline crystal, which became one of Baccarat’s specialities in the 1850’s.
Ferdinand Barbedienne (1810-1892)
Born in 1810, Ferdinand Barbedienne started at n°30 boulevard Poissonnière in Paris 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 Auguste Clésinger (1814-1883), Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (18241887) and Louis Barrias (1841-1905 At the London Universal Exhibition of 1862 Barbedienne exhibited some "opaque cloisonné" enamel works, which were for most of them designed by Constant Sévin (18211888), and won medals in three different categories: Furniture, Silversmith work and Artistic bronzes, combining for some pieces with enamels (Oriental style cup, Château de Compiègne, Inv. C 71-122). 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". 107
Antoine-Henri Beau (1855-1937)
Antoine-Henri Beau, born in 1855 in Paris, studied at the École Polytechnique, where he graduated in electrical engineering in 1872. He became a manufacturer of lighting fixtures, and run his company Henri Beau, located 11 rue Francois-Millet at Auteuil. The art of lighting went through a considerable change with the industrialisation of gaz prior to the introduction of elecricity. French cities and salons alike were equiped with candelabras. But it was not until 1890 that apartements were supplied with electricity, yet to remain a great luxury for quite some time. Henri Beau made the first applications of electricity for lighting cities and interiors: he illuminated the Paris Opera Avenue and the Louvre Department Store in 1878, the Bellecour Theatre in Lyon in 1879, the Urbaine building on the Champs-Elysées as well as public festivals of Russian sailors in 1893. Celebrated by the public and the French state, Henri Beau was honored with the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor’ medal at the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1889. In 1901, Tsar Nicolas II and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, during a visit of several days in France, settled in the Compiègne imperial Palace. For the occasion, this sumptuous castle is renovated, refurbished and illuminated. "Electric lighting is perfect. This is a triumph for Henri Beau, who indeed, throughout the palace, completed in less than three weeks, a veritable tour de force". Le Figaro noted in its edition of September 21, 1901.
Mathieu Befort (1816-c.1880)
From 1844 to 1880, Mathieu Befort (1816-c.1880) also named Befort The Young worked as a “Boulle” style furniture craftsman at Neuve-Saint-Gilles Street in Paris.
Jean Bérain (1638-1711)
Jean Bérain, designer of the Chambre and of the Cabinet du Roi in 1674.
Alfred-Emmanuel Beurdeley (1847-1919)
Beurdeley is one of the most significant companies in art cabinet-making and decoration in the second half of the 19th century. Three generations succeed: Jean (1772-1853), who set up in Paris under the First Empire; his son Louis-Alfred-Auguste (1808-1882) who makes the renown of the family firm and is then considered as one of the greatest cabinet-maker under the Second Empire; finally the grandson Alfred-Emmanuel-Louis (1847-1919) who maintains the high fame of the firm thanks to his high standard quality furniture. In 1875, Alfred Beurdeley replaced his father Louis-Auguste as one of the main cabinet-makers of the Second Empire, specialising in 18th century furniture and particularly in the Louis XVI style. If Louis-Auguste was the star whenever he exhibited and was "most favored by the royal and imperial families", Alfred was a skilled bronze-caster as well as a well-known art collector. With Dasson, Grohé, Sauvresy and Fourdinois, the most famous artists of the period, he took part in the 1878 Paris Universal Exhibition where he won the gold medal. Crowned in 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 Légion d’Honneur, France’s hightest official mark of recognition. With this he won the respect of both the government and the contemporary art critics. His last presentation was during the 1889 Universal and International Exhibition, at this time the director of the Exhibition wrote in his report: "The talent of Mr Beurdeley is self evident when one inspects his furniture".
Fernand Blayn (1853-1892)
Blayn Fernand studied painting under Alexandre Cabanel (1823-1889). He specialized in portraits and genre paintings depicting everyday-life scenes. F. Blayn exhibited from 1878 at the Salon of French Artists. He obtained a third class medal at the 1886 Salon and a bronze medal at the Salon of 1889. Dedicated to the circus, the composition of this painting, painted the year of the death of the artist, of flawless execution, is distinguished by fine and delicate tones. The expression of faces as the care given to the quality and texture of fabrics reveal the brilliant art of the artist.
Jean de Bologne
Giambologna or Jean de Bologne was a French mannerist sculptor born in Douai in 1529 and dead in Florence in 1608. He studied his art in Antwerp with the architect and sculptor Jacques Du Broeucq before leaving for Rome from 1555 to 1557. He then settled in Florence under the protection of Francesco I de’ Medici, where he produced for the Piazza della Signoria the equestrian statue of Cosimo I de’ Medici, and statues in the Loggia dei Lanzi. In 1614, the equestrian statue of King Henri IV commissioned to Jean de Boulogne by Queen Marie de Medicis was inaugurated in Paris on the Ile de la Cité (statue destroyed during the Revolution).
Lucien Bonvallet (1861-1919)
Lucien Bonvallet was a designer. He exposed his works on Cardeilhac’s stand at the 1900 Paris Universal Exhibition, and at the Autumn Salon of 1919.
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André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732)
André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732) is considered to be the true inventor of 17th century French furniture. Soon after he was discovered by Colbert, Boulle became the “first cabinet-maker of the king”, his full title being “architect, painter, mosaic sculptor, engraver, marquetry craftsman, and inventor of figures”. Thus started for him the beginning of a period of great renown. With his royal privilege, Boulle was able to combine different activities usually restricted by corporations. Henceforth he worked as a master tortoiseshell and bronze marquetry craftsman, with such innovations as motifs both in the foreground and in the background. He also innovated by making a generous use of bronze, to decorate but also to protect the pieces of furniture. These innovations brought him fame throughout centuries.
Henry Cahieux (active since 1850)
Henry Cahieux, head decorator for the artistic bronze founder Ferdinand Barbedienne, was destined for a brilliant career, as testified by the works of art he sent to the Salons of 1850 and 1853. Most of these pieces were in the Grecian style, which was very fashionable at the time. Victor Champier’s article "Industrial Artists" , which appeared in the Decorative Arts Review (December 1888) echoed the genius of the artist: "Barbedienne had just lost (in 1854), taken by cholera in the prime of life, this young man with such a promising future, whose works, infused with graceful taste, showed him to be a master. At the 1855 Universal Exhibition in Paris, these lamps which figured as the last testimony of Henry Cahieux, won a medal of honour for Barbedienne’s stand. His succession in the firm was assured by Louis-Constant Sévin (1821-1888) with great success.
Joséphine Calamatta (1817-1893)
Joséphine Calamatta was born Joséphine Raoul-Rochette in Paris, the granddaughter of the sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828) was a pupil of the painter Hippolyte Flandrin (1809-1864) and of her husband Luigi Calamatta (1801-1869), an engraver and professor at the Fine Arts Academy in Brussels, himself a student of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867). So naturally Joséphine Calamatta, following the precepts of Ingres painted sentimental genre scenes, portraits and religious subjects, with a symbolistic aspect in her allegories. Married since 1840, Joséphine left Luigi her husband and Lina her daughter to stay in Paris in 1852 and live her life as an artist at No. 3 rue JJ Rousseau, then at No. 24 rue Ventimiglia. She was a friend of the writer George Sand (1804-1876) and attended her home in Nohant. She started to exhibit at the Salon of 1842, where she won a 3rd class medal for The Virgin and Child Jesus. A 2nd class medal confirmed her talent at the 1845 Salon for Woman at her toilet and Charles Baudelaire quoted her in his Critique of the 1846 Fair, writing that she was known for the severity of her style and her Pre-Raphaelites tendencies. Joséphine Calamatta exhibited “hors concours” at the Salon from 1875. She entered into religion at the end of her life.
Antoine-Vital Cardeilhac (19th century)
Antoine-Vital Cardeilhac founded in 1804 a company specialized in cutlery and flatware. Throughout the 19th century, the company had passed from father to son, with Armand-Edouard and Ernest then, and continued to successfully produce pieces highly inspired for most of them from ironwork models, richly ornamented with fine motifs. These works of varied forms and styles were all considered remarkable for their chiselling. The Cardeilhac firm was then inevitably noticed in national and international exhibitions for the high quality of products available to the public and received numerous awards, such as the bronze medal in 1823, silver medals in 1827 and 1834 as well as at the famous 1867 Paris Universal Exhibition. They were finally awarded a gold medal at the Universal Exhibition of 1878, giving the Cardeilhac company an unprecedented boom. After more than a century of proven success in the great universal exhibitions, the famous silversmith Christofle took over Cardeilhac business in 1951.
Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (1824-1887)
Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, nick-named the "Clodion of the 19th century"; was a very prolific sculptor, treating his decorative objects and his portraits with equal naturalistic rigor, full of charm and life. He entered the Paris Fine-Arts School in 1840, where he studied sculpture under David d’Angers. From the early 1860’s, he won success with his sculptures presented at the French Artists Salon and particularly during the 1867 Salon, where he was awarded a "médaille d’honneur" and the "Légion d’honneur" for his Messiah. The "new" Paris redesigned by the Baron Haussmann during Napoleon IIIrd’s reign, commissioned many of Carrier-Belleuse’s masterpieces: at the Louvre palace with the high-relief "L’Abondance" on the Flore Pavilion (1865), or the sumptuous decoration made for the most famous Parisian palace on the Champs-Elysées Avenue, owned by the Marchioness of Païva. But it is especially with the torcheres-statues of the large staircase of the Paris Opera house (1873), recently built by Charles Garnier, that Carrier-Belleuse meets a huge success with the Parisian public. In the catalogue of the 1878 Universal Exhibition an art critic praised Carrier-Belleuse and added: "Even the English come from London to ask him to work for them". His busts, nudes, group compositions as well as his candelabras, vases and clocks, all chased remarkably, had a considerable success during the Second Empire.
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Alexandre Chertier (active from 1855 until 1878)
Alexandre Chertier, active between 1855 and 1878, began in the 1850s as a silversmith to Louis Bachelet (active from 1844 to 1877), known as a great Parisian silversmith. He then founded his own company of silverware and decorative bronze pieces, located n.48 rue Mazarine in Paris. Honored by critics, Chertier was awarded medals at the Paris Universal Exhibitions of 1855 and 1878.
Charles Christofle (1805-1863)
Charles Christofle, began his career by managing a jewelry firm and a few years later he set up his own business: the Christofle silversmith company. His son Paul (1838-1907) and his nephew Henri Bouilhet (1830-1910) took over the business after his death. After his success at the Paris Products of Industry Exhibition of 1839, he bought the patents of gold and silver-plating by electrolysis from both Ruolz and Elkington, which enabled him again to win the gold medal at the 1844 Products of Industry Exhibition. He was named "silver-smith to the royal family" and his success was confirmed during the Second Empire when he was regularly awarded prizes at the Universal Exhibitions.
Emile Colin (2nd part of the 19th century)
Rrenowned founder installed since 1843, No. 29 Sévigné Street in Paris, cast as soon as 1855 for the most wellknow masters of France sculpture, such A.E. Carrier-Belleuse (Le Zouave), J. Pradier (Les Trois Grâces, Vénus consolant l’Amour) or J.B. Carpeaux since 1875 (L’Enfant au cor), as well as the famous Parisian silversmith Christofle. Colin used to stamp his bronzes of the mention "Emile Colin & Cie" from 1882 until 1898. That mark became later "M. Colin & Cie" from 1898 until 1906, then "Ancienne Maison Colin, ie Jollet & C " from 1906 until 1923. Worldwide renowned, Emile Colin sent to the Chicago Universal Exhibition of 1893 bronze works of art, with among them, ormolu mounted marble urns and clocks. The Colin Company counted then at the turn of the century among the greatest bronze-casters at the sides of Barbedienne, Susse and Siot-Decauville.
The «Compagnie des marbres Onyx d’Algérie» (19th century)
The «Compagnie des marbres Onyx d’Algérie», led by G. Viot and named also «The Algerian OnyxMarbles Co.», refering to the quarries of onyx the firm exploited near Oran, set up Boulevard des Italiens N.24, in Paris. Founded in the middle of the 19th century, that firm remained opened until the beginning of the 20th century. Onyx, although known since antiquity was not rediscovered until 1849 in Oran Province, Algeria, by Delmonte, a marble worker and fully exploited by Pallu in the late 1850’s. The firm G. Viot & Cie produced, after models created by the most well-known sculptors, such as Cordier, Cornu and Carrier-Belleuse, luxuous furniture and art objects, incorporating onyx marbles and bronze, which awarded Viot medals at the various exhibitions, such the Gold Medal at the 1867 Paris Universal Exhibition.
Charles Cordier (1827-1905)
Charles-Henri-Joseph Cordier entered the Paris School of Fine Arts in 1846, and then left in order to study under the famous sculptor François Rude (1784-1855). His first success with the bust of a Sudanese at the 1848 Salon was explained by Cordier himself in the following manner: "My subject was new and fashionable; The revolt against slavery and anthropology... , I renovated the value of sculpture and innovated the study of different races, thus enlarging the circle of beauty". Two years later, encouraged by the reception given his work, he executed The African Venus. These two bronzes were bought by Queen Victoria at the 1851 Universal Exhibition in London. The French government commissioned replicas for the anthropological gallery of the Natural History Museum in Paris which wished to inaugurate an ethnographical gallery to present different racial types. Cordier therefor began to constitute a collection of sculptures and in 1856 he requested a mission to Algeria in order to reproduce the various morphologies: Kabyles, Jews, Moors, Arabs, Berbers and Negroes; some in marble and others in bronze. This voyage was of capital importance to his work, not only in the mixture of art and ethnology but also in that he discovered marble and onyx quarries exploited since ancient times. It should be noted that alongside these documentary and naturalistic expeditions, the imperial couple Napoleon III and Eugenie, aristocrats as well as the wealthy high society in search of exotism, look especially to see the picturesque, wealth and sensuality that emerg from these multi-ethnic cultures.
Eugène Cornu (1827-1899)
The sculptor Eugène Cornu worked closely with G. Viot and Cie, set up Boulevard des Italiens N. 24, in Paris. They produced luxurious furniture and art objects, incorporating onyx marble and bronze, with sometimes enamel, a combination then considered as a novelty and become quickly highly prized among wealthy collectors. They both showed at the 1867 Universal Exhibition held in Paris a fine pair of onyx, bronze and enamel vases (signed "G. Viot et Cie, Exposition de 1867, Eugène Cornu Inventeur"; Catalogue Officiel de l’Exposition, groupe III, classe XIV, "meubles de luxe", n°65) for which Cornu and Viot won the Gold Medal (Rapports du Jury International, Exposition Universelle de 1867 à Paris, 1868, t. III, groupe III, classe XV, chapître II, § 2, p°45 & 46).
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Joseph-Désiré Court (1797-1865)
Joseph-Desire Court, French painter of history and portraits, entered the local art school in Rouen, where he was noticed by rapid progress. He then passed into the studio of the famous painter Antoine-Jean Gros (1871-1835), from whom he learned the power of color. Wishing above all to visit Rome to complete his art education, Court won the Grand Prize in 1821 for his painting Samson handed over to the Philistines by Delilah (preserved at the Fine Arts School of Paris). From Rome he sent to the Paris Salons to be exhibited, Death of Caesar in 1824 (Fabre museum in Montpellier), what knew a considerable impact and was acquired by the French State, then The Flood in 1827 (Fine Arts museum in Lyon). In 1828, the Rouen Arts Academy commissioned him a large painting to decorate the newly built assembly hall: with Corneille welcomed at the theater by the Great Condé, Court was awarded a gold medal. The French government in 1830 ordered a decoration contest for the new hall of the Chamber of Deputies and Court there won for the second topic. This academic painter trained at neoclassical masters is characterized by its smooth and perfect technique, his mastery of drawing, as well as the harmony and balance color and composition. He had a special talent for portrait and the orders flooded in his studio, including those from sovereigns, such as King LouisPhilippe, his sister Madame Adelaïde, the King and Queen of Denmark, the Tsar Nicolas I of Russia and Pope Pius IX. Joseph-Desire Court got the Legion of Honour in 1838. Returning to his hometown, he in 1853 was appointed curator of the Fine Arts musuem in Rouen. He exhibited nevertheless regularly at the Paris Salon until 1863.
Manufacture of Creil Montereau (18th- 20th centuries)
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 18th 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 20th 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.
Charles Cressent (1685-1768)
Charles Cressent, famous French cabinet-maker and sculptor. He was taught by his father, François Cressent, a sculptor in Amiens, and became a maître ébéniste on 9 January 1708. He subsequently became a pupil of François Girardon and became a maître sculpteur in the Académie de Saint-Luc, Paris, on 14 August 1714. He obtained the title of Ebéniste du Régent in 1719, which allowed him to trade as a cabinet-maker free from guild restrictions. The richest French patrons, the Portuguese Court and many German princes bought furniture from him. His work is of exceptional quality and epitomizes the Régence and early Louis XV styles, to which he remained faithful throughout his career. The forms of his pieces were perfectly curved and rendered sumptuous by abundant, virtuoso bronze mounts and emphatically serrated agraffe ornaments and mouldings. His lavish mounts to some extent obscured the restrained veneering or geometric marquetry, for which he almost always used rose-wood, purplewood or satin-wood. Above all, however, he was a sculptor, and he contravened guild restrictions by modelling the bronzes that adorn his furniture himself.
Charles Cumberworth (1811-1852)
Charles Cumberworth was the son of an English officer and a French mother, arriving in Paris at his early age. Student of the sculptor James Pradier (1790-1852), he joined the Fine Arts School in 1829 and won the Rome grand prize in 1842, but he was disqualified because of his no French nationality. Cumberworth exhibited at the Paris Salon of living artists from 1833 to 1848, mostly busts of women and children as well as allegorical statues of classical style. He made the statues of Queen Marie-Amélie (1842) and the Duke of Montpensier (1847). As many artists, Charles Cumberworth signed a contract as early as 1837 with the Susse brothers company, one of the greatest bronze editors-founders of the time.
Albert Louis Dammouse (1848-1926)
Albert Louis Dammouse was a French sculptor, designer and ceramist, who worked as his father sculptor Pierre-Adolphe Dammouse (1817-1880) at the Sèvres porcelain Manufacture. He first received training in the workshop of the sculptor François Jouffroy (1806-1882) where he made sculptures for the Louvre palace. From 1863 to 1868, he studied at the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, then studied at the École des Beaux-Arts. He began to expose at the Salon of 1869 with a plaster bust. In 1871, he founded a workshop in Sèvres and kept it until his death in 1926. There, he made and decorated porcelain pieces as well as stoneware and earthenware. He exhibited at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1878, where he met a huge success and won a gold medal at the Universal Exhibition of 1889.
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Henry Dasson (1825-1896)
Henry Dasson, as a cabinet-maker and bronze-caster, 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 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.
Théodore Deck (1823-1891)
The renowned ceramist Théodore Deck, born in Guebwiller in 1823, made his apprenticeship in the Hügelin earthenware factory in Strasbourg. After a European tour of initiation he arrived in Paris in 1847. He made his first public appearance in 1861 at the Parisian Arts and Industry Salon where he won a silver medal for the works he exhibited. His reputation thus assured, Deck became profoundly influenced by the Japanese style, which was very fashionable at the time. He adopted the naturalistic oriental motifs with great precision. Emile Reiber (1826-1893) chief designer for Christofle, also made sketches for Deck. The fame he merited through long hours of work was assured by his success at Universal Exhibitions in which he participated: Vienna in 1873 where all his rivals were left far behind; Paris in 1878 where he won the Grand Prize for his portraits on gold backgrounds. Showered with praise by the critics at the Central Union of Decorative Arts Exhibition in 1874, the "Gazette des Beaux Arts" (Paris,1874, vol. XXXV, p. 310) reported that "Mr. Deck, master of masters is the greatest glory of French ceramics". His life was devoted to the amelioration of earthenware technology by a succession of achievements. He thus improved the rending of colours, one of which, a new turquoise blue, became known as "Bleu de Deck". Theodore Deck had talent and he knew it. He did not keep it to himself however, but shared it with others and helped to promote young artists who lacked means. He thus became an example for the renaissance of ceramic art during the second half of the 19th century. All his techniques were made public and circulated in a book on earthenware. His Genius recognized and promoted to the grade of "Officier de la Légion d’honneur" he was nominated director of the Sèvres Porcelain Factory in 1887.
Eugène Delaplanche (1836-1891)
The sculptor Eugène Delaplanche was a pupil of Francisque Duret (1804-1865), gained the Prix de Rome in 1864 (spending 1864-67 at the Villa Medici in Rome). He was a very talented artist, much appreciated under the Second Empire. His best work is naturalistic, but at the same time classical, dignified and simple in line, and shows sound mastery of technique. With some of his colleagues, he was against the Realism artistic movement. Delaplanche exhibited several times at the Salon of the French artists in Paris, such in 1877, and obtained the Medal of honour in 1878.
Guillaume Denière (1815-1903)
The bronze-caster Guillaume Denière was the pupil of the famous ornementalist Aimé Chenavard (17981838) and of the architect Henri Labrouste (1801-1875). In 1844, Denière succeeded his father in the family workshop, established in 1804, at 15, rue Vivienne in Paris. The business was at this time prosperous and four hundred workers worked to satisfy the numerous commissions from King Louis-Philippe and the upper classes. He made bronze furnishings, candelabras and centrepieces. He collaborated with a number of artists, amongst whom Carrier-Belleuse (1848-1913) and Constant Sévin (1821-1888). He turned out several clocks for the Tuileries Palace in 1852, as well as a ‘globe’ clock with rotating dials for the Grand Salon of the Château of Bagatelle. Denière’s work was very often remarked upon at the Universal Exhibitions, so much so in fact that the Emporer Napoleon III bought, at the Paris Exhibition of 1867, a clock set. His renown was by this point international. Amongst his most prestigious commissions, Denière produced 1854 a spectacular bronze centrepiece for the Russian ambassador, Kisselef, and decorative bronzes for the Viceroy of Egypt, Saïd Pacha, as well as railings for the Throne Room for the King of Cambodia, Norodom I, in 1862. At the 1889 Universal Exhibition G. Denière won a gold medal.
Charles-Guillaume Diehl (1811-1885)
Arriving in Paris in about 1840 Charles-Guillaume Dieh 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 112
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’École de Nancy, Nancy).
maison Dienst (19th century)
The Dienst company practiced in Paris, No.58 rue du Faubourg-Saint-Antoine from 1836 and subsequently to No.38, 29 and 86 until 1871. Eugène Dienst took over in 1871 his father’s furnishing firm, then with the sign «To the King of Siam» and executed there complete furnishings of various styles until the late 19th century. As a talented interior designer, he participated in the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1889 where he won a gold medal. He presented there among other furniture, «A Louis XV bed, of a very distinguished and charming design, a Renaissance fireplace and some nice seats». The jury of the exhibition honoured Eugène Dienst and reported that they regretted that «Mr Dienst doesn’t have recalled us that he was a talented cabinet-maker as well as a sculptor».
Gustave Doré (1832-1883)
Gustave Doré was a French illustrator, engraver, painter and sculptor, born in Strasbourg in 1832 and dead in Paris in 1883. He was internationally recognized during his lifetime especially through his many book illustrations like the Works by Rabelais or The Divine Comedy by Dante. Gustave Doré also excelled in sculpture, as evidenced by his bronze mirror with cherubs made in 1877 (now in the museum of the Royal Monastery of Brou in Bourg-en-Bresse, France), The Fates and Love presented at the Salon of 1871, or Glory introduced in 1878 which had received a laudatory article by Paul de Saint-Victor. At the Paris Universal Exhibition held in 1878, Gustave Doré showed a huge vase of 2.90 meters, named Le Poème de la Vigne on which a cascade of putti makes a stunning work. Cast in bronze by Thiébault Frères in 1882, this vase dedicated to winemakers was presented at the Universal Exposition in Chicago in 1893 and San Francisco in 1894 where it was bought by businessman Michael Henry de Young (still exposed in the de Young Museum in San Francisco). The achievement of Doré’s short career as a sculptor is undoubtedly the monument to the memory of his friend Alexandre Dumas (located Place du Général Catroux, Paris). Gustave Doré said of this work that it was the greatest effort of his life and did not accept any money for it. Gustave Doré has left a considerable number of works. Henri Leblanc has identified in his catalog 9850 illustrations, 526 drawings, 283 watercolors, 133 paintings and 45 sculptures.
Edouard Drouot (1859-1945)
Edouard Drouot began his career as a painter, and soon devoted himself to sculpture. He studied in Paris in the studio of Emile Thomas (1817-1882) and then Mathurin Moreau (1822-1912), who taught him how to sculpt in a very academic style corresponding to the taste of the time. Exhibiting at the 1889 Paris Salon, Edouard Drouot asserted his style and his skill in sculptures mainly cast in bronze. He sculpted only one large sculpture, The Amateur, a marble work presented at the 1893 Salon, and then at the Universal Exhibition of 1900 where he received an honorable mention. Drouot focused in his work on movement and expression through his figures posing with precarious balance, giving them much grace. He found his subjects in a wide repertoire plenty of genre, sport and Orientalist scenes. But the theme in which the artist excelled was the representation of mythological figures making him a leading figure of the sculpture of the late 19th and early 20th century.
Paul Dubois (1827-1905)
Paul Dubois entered the Paris Beaux-Arts School in 1858. He exhibited at the 1865 Salon the Chanteur Florentin, illustrating Florentine sculpture, observed after his journey in Italy. This work, cast that time in silvered bronze, was exhibited at the 1867 Paris Universal Exhibition (now preserved at the Orsay museum). Dubois’ success brought him many commissions, both private (Portrait of Duc d’Aumale) and public (Jeanne d’Arc, in Reims). Appointed curator at the Luxembourg museum in 1873, Dubois became also a member of the Institute and finally headmaster at the Beaux-Arts School in 1878.
Gervais Durand (1839-1920)
The cabinet-maker Gervais Durand 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 skilful 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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Ferdinand Duvinage (1823-1876)
As early as 1863, Ferdinand Duvinage was a dealer of paintings and fans. In 1867, he teamed up with Alphonse Giroux for running the company installed Boulevard des Capucines. This partnership allowed him to label "Maison Giroux Paris" and then "Ancienne Maison Giroux" on his works mounts. On 6 May 1874, Ferdinand Duvinage filed a first patent for "a kind of mosaic inlaying made of partitioned metal to be used on furniture and art objects". This patent filed by Duvinage is really original. The process he invented is "the combined meeting of ivory as background, stained or exotic woods used for ornaments, and copper or other metal to partition ivory". The ivory is intended to form the bottom and is hollowed to "insert the wooden mosaic" and the son of copper. These, in most cases, represent the branches and stems of plants. The first patent is complemented by two additions. Indeed, in February 1876, Duvinage imagined replacing ivory by imitating wood, such as boxwood. A few months later, in November 1876, he offered further to enrich the decoration of ivory partitioned furniture and objects by adding "applied metal or other material depicting birds, animals, shrubs, flowers, foliage, fruit, etc.., inlaid with pearls and precious stones". This type of ornamentation was however little used by Duvinage, most of the time, his productions were confined to the technique described in the first patent. The Japanese style decors were always associated with nature, with birds and plants. In 1876, Rosalie Duvinage named "the Duvinage widow" took over the business after the death of her husband and took a patent in 1877 for a marquetry of Japanese inspiration, adding pearl decoration to the previous patent. We do not until now know any furniture, object or panel with pearl decoration. Signed works embellished with these designs were first exhibited to great acclaim at the 1878 Paris Universal Exhibition (D. Kisluk-Grosheid, "Maison Giroux and its 'Oriental' Marquetry Technique", Furniture History: The Journal of The Furniture History Society, 1998, Vol. 34). Directed then by A. Philippe and E. Arnut from 1883 until 1884, the Giroux company closed definitively down in 1885.
George Richards Elkington (1800-1865)
The great Birmingham firm of Elkingtons, was largely the creation of George Richards Elkington (18001865), who worked from 1824 in Birmingham as a manufacturer of silver-mounted scent bottles. By 1829 the business had expanded sufficiently for a branch to have been established in London. In the late 1830’s the Elkingtons began making experiments to apply the principles of electro-metallurgy to gilding and plating with silver and in 1840 the patent was at last taken out. Elkingtons owed their rise to a position amongst the most important silversmiths of the country to their exploitation of this new process and the two of the most famous designers then emloyed, both of them French, Albert Wilms (1827-1899) and Morel-Ladeuil (1820-1888), who helped to make Elkingtons’ reputation with their elaborate exhibition pieces.
L’Escalier de Cristal (19th century)
L’Escalier de Cristal, Parisian firm created about 1800 by Mme veuve Desarnaud, famous under the French "Restoration" for its decorative objects combining crystal and bronze. She was awarded a gold medal at the 1819 Paris Exposition des Produits de l’Industrie for an outstanding gilt-bronze mounted crystal dressing table. Located in Paris, at the Palais-Royal, Galerie de Valois, L’Escalier de Cristal was bought out around 1830 by Boin, and then by Lahoche in 1840. The company owed its rise to a position amongst the most important Paris decorative wares shops to Lahoche, who expanded considerably the business and entered later in partnership with his son-in-law to set up in 1852 Lahoche et Pannier. In 1872 Emile Pannier led alone the firm, and then his sons from 1885 to 1923, whom gave the name of Pannier Frères to the company, located at the corner of Scribe and Auber streets, next to the new built Paris Opera house. L’Escalier de Cristal suggesting also since the 1880’s furniture and art bronze pieces, was several times awarded medals at the various International Exhibitions held in Paris, London and New York, and for instance a gold medal at the 1900 Paris Universal Exhibition. Numerous artists, such Emile Gallé, Louis Majorelle and Gabriel Viardot worked for the L’Escalier de Cristal’s woldwide renown, and introduced then some of their greatest Japanese style creations (adorned with "cloisonné" enamels, Japanese motifs,…).
Gilbert Fabre (active around 1900)
Gilbert Fabre is listed at the turn of the 20th century among manufacturers of quality bronzes. They also produced many clocks and mantle decorations, whose works were manufactured by the wellknown Samuel Marti, installed Rue Charlot in Paris in 1860. Gilbert Fabre in 1919 sold his business to Chardon company, an art foundry from Belgium in 1878 then.
Alexandre Falguière (1831-1900)
Alexandre Falguière studied sculpture under Jouffroy at the Paris École des Beaux-Arts, began his career at the Paris Salon in 1857 and won as soon as 1859 the "Prix de Rome". Falguière became very quickly successful and was several times awarded medals at the Salon, such in 1868 with his marble sculpture Tarcisius the Christian Boy-Martyr, or at the 1867 Paris Universal Exhibition, where he won the first medal in his category. Thanks to that success, he was immediately commissioned by private collectors as well as by the French State, whom asked him in 1878 to realize the Triomphe de la République, placed in 1881 at the summit of the Paris Arch of Triumph (taken down in 1886). After having created in the conventional classical mould, Falguière turned his art to Realism, as shows this bust of Diana, very close in style to portraits of Parisian ladies. Falguière was considered as one of the inventors of Realism in sculpture, in the 19th century French school and was then awarded 1870 the Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur, France’s hightest official mark of recognition. 114
maison Fourdinois (founded in 1835)
The Fourdinois company was founded in 1835 by the cabinet-maker Alexandre-Georges Fourdinois (17991871). 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 (18301907) 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.
Charles-Auguste Fraikin (1817-1893)
Charles-Auguste Fraikin, the son of a notary, attended the Academy in Antwerp from 1829 to 1831 before receiving his diploma as a pharmacist in 1835. In 1836 he discovered the work of Guillaume Geefs (18051883), one of the greatest Belgian sculptors in the early 19th century, and decided to abandon pharmacy for sculpture. Pierre Puyenbroeck (1804-1884) noticed his talent and took him on in his studio. Fraikin was encouraged by the famous painter François-Joseph Navez (1787-1869), the director of the Brussels Royal Fine arts Academy, and studied there under Louis Jéhotte (1803-1884). He exhibited for the first time in 1839 in Brussels where, six years later, his Cupid held Captive won a gold medal and considerable success. Two versions in marble were ordered by King Leopold I for the Royal Fine arts Museums in Brussels, and by Grand Duchess of Russia for the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg. Fraikin was then during all his life honoured for his delicate and seductive classicism, awarding him much success and many private and official commands.
Gagneau (19th century)
Famous lighting manufacture established in Paris, participated in many exhibitions, such the Industry Products expositions since 1819, and received numerous awards throughout the 19th century. Appreciated by his contemporary fellows, G. Gagneau became part of the jury, in the category of art bronzes (Class 25) at the 1889 Paris Universal Exhibition.
François Gautier (19th century)
Francois Gautier founded his bronze workshop in 1850 and settled at 3, rue des Fosses-Montmartre in Paris. He was awarded a first-class medal in 1855 with table centrepieces, figure groups, statues, art and bronze furniture mounts. He exhibited again in 1862 and soon after sold his company to J. Albinet and G. Coulon, then installed at 4, rue de Choiseul in Paris, and specialized in bronze clocks and chimney clock sets. In 1874 they both exhibited bronze artworks, clocks and candelabras of various styles.
Adolphe-Victor Geoffroy-Dechaume (1810-1892)
French sculptor and silversmith, studies at the drawing free-program school before joining, in 1831, the Paris "École des Beaux-Arts". He will be David d’Angers’ and James Pradier’ pupil.
P. Girola (2nd part of the 19th century)
P. Girola is a worthy descendant of Stefano Girola, born in Milano in 1795. He was a student of Camillo Pacetti at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera in Milan and was regarded in the 19th century as one of the best representatives of Neoclassicism in Lombardy. He participated in the sculptural decoration of the Dome from 1811 to 1861. P. Girola developed then his business in Milan, Viale Umbria 93.
Alphonse Giroux (active from 1799 until 1885)
Alphonse Giroux and Company, famous curiosity and luxury goods shop was situated 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, AlphonseGustave (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, winning a silver medal at the in 1834. 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 mentionned 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 IIIrd 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. 115
Oscar Gladenbeck (1850-1921)
Gladenbeck Hermann (1827-1918) was a bronze founder from Berlin, of international reputation in the 1850s. He led his company in 1880 with his four sons, Oscar (1850-1921), Alfred (1858-1912), Walter (1866-1945) and Paul (1869-1947) as the Gladenbeck & Son. Their bronze foundry produced many large pieces ordered by the State, as the monument to the memory of Emmanuel Kant and the Victory of the Victory Column in Berlin, modeled by Friedrich Drake. Gladenbeck is considered as the most important German foundry that produced monumental sculptures as well as small bronze pieces. The company ceased to be led by the family Gladenbeck in 1892, then ceased activity in 1911 following a bankruptcy.
Pierre Philippe Gouthière (1732-1813)
Pierre Philippe Gouthière is one of the masters of bronze crafting under the reign of Louis XVI. He was the master of Pierre Philippe Thomire.
Michele Grandville (1758-1836)
Few crafts have experienced the span of one century - the 19th - the splendor, recognition, and international diffusion that Tarsia Sorentia (Sorrento Inlay) enjoyed. The beginning of this enchanting art can be dated to the 1827 with the work of the Sorrentine Antonio Damora, who was summoned by Francis I of Bourbon to restore and furnish Naples Palazzo Reale (The Royal Court at Naples). Returning to Sorrento, Damora learned the wood inlaying techniques along with other artists, such as Michele Grandville, Luigi Gargiulo (1806-1883) and Guiseppe Maggiolini (1738-1814). They led the way for the production of inlay objects that won awards and medals, and reached half the world’s market in the mid-19th century. Important patrons of the arts such as Ferdinand of Bourbon and Pope Pius IX contributed to the growth of the Sorrentine inlay industry. The main subject of decoration used in Michele Grandville’s production, is the Neapolitan customs represented during the various scenes of everyday life, drawn from the prints by Gaetano Dura (1805-1878), as well as genre scenes inspired by antique Pompeian paintings. Unlike other inlay works in its use of different colored woods, Sorrentine inlay based its chromatic effects on the play of the tonal contrasts of two local woods: walnut and orange at first, and then olive and some other imported woods. But the reason for the high artistic value of Sorrentine inlay is its absolute independence from contemporary forms of inlay work. The initial technique of mosaic-like inlay evolved into painting with watercolors on the wood design, known as "enamel on wood", although the inlay work was still performed with gouges and saws.
Jean-Louis Grégoire (1840-1890)
Jean-Louis Grégoire studied sculpture with Jean-Jules Salmson (1823-1902). Since 1867, he exhibited portraits of contemporaries as well as mythological works at the Salon of Paris, where he won a honorable mention, and later at the Salon of the French Artists. After the 1870 war, Grégoire was several times commissioned for patriotic subjects, such L'Alsace (1874), La Lorraine or La Défense du drapeau (1888).
Guillaume Grohé (1808-1885)
Guillaume Grohé settled down as a cabinet-maker 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.
Emile Guillemin (1841-1907)
A leading Parisian sculptor of the period, Emile Guillemin began his career at the 1870 Salon of French Artists. He participated in various Exhibitions where he was awarded honors and medals. The quality of his chasing was highly acclaimed because of its realistic effects: accurate costuming, minute detailing and expressive faces. Most of his works, made in bronze and cast in different sizes were inspired by exotic subjects, such as biblical heroes, conquistadors and above all life-like Oriental figures.
Eugène Hazart (19th century)
Eugène Hazart entered the "Réunion des Fabricants de Bronze" in 1839. Well-known since 1843 in the making of ancient style reproductions, not only with his Gothic and Renaissance style bronzes but also very at ease in the 18th century style. He was definitely well apreciated because his presence in 1884 in the Pannier brothers’s bronze-casters booklet. The Pannier brothers managed beautifully the so-famous house "A l’Escalier de Cristal", which took place at the Palais-Royal in Paris and was selling porcelain and cristal objects as well as furniture. This company drew attention to his work during its participations in the 19th century "Expositions des Produits de l’Industrie".
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Emile Hébert (1828-1893)
Emile Hébert studied sculpture with his father and the renowned artist Feuchère. He participated in all major exhibits, such the Salon of the French Artists from 1846 to 1893 with busts and mythological subjects, or the Paris Universal Exhibitions. At the 1867 Universal Exhibition, Hébert was awarded a gold medal for having collaborated on the clock described above (Exposition Universelle 1867, Groupe III, Classe 25, catégorie des bronzes d’art) with Georges Servant (1828-c.1890), whom had a foundry, rue Vieille-duTemple, in Paris, specialized in neo-Greek and neo-Egyptian style clocks. Hébert participated with equal success at the 1878 Universal Exhibition, where he won once again a gold medal for some other Egyptian style objects. The report of the jury (Exposition Universelle de 1878, Rapport sur les bronzes d’art, Groupe III, Classe 25, p.26) noticed, that "the chasing by Hébert is under perfect control and always appreciated by artists". His antique style figures, Greek, Roman or Egyptian, are some of his most popular works following the tradition of ethnographic decorative sculpture in late 19th century France. Hébert became also renowned for having sculpted two allegories, La Comédie and Le Drame, for the façade of the Paris "Vaudeville" Theater.
Nicolas Heurtaut (1720-1771)
Nicolas Heurtaut learnt woodcarving in his father’s carpentry workshop. In 1742 he became a "maître sculpteur", and in 1753 "maître menuisier" for chairs. Nicolas Heurtaut worked within different styles, between the Louis XV and the Louis XVI period. He realized many pieces of furniture, but specialized mainly in sittings. Among the 18th century chairs production, his works showing great technical mastery, are considered to be unsurpassed.
Henri Houdebine (active since 1845)
The bronze-caster Henri Houdebine founded his company in 1845. He gained a great reputation in the making of clocks and decorative bronze pieces. His works, appreciated for their high artistic quality, took inspiration from various styles, including the neo-Greek style, very fashionable with artists in the 1860s. His work was immediatedly successful with the public, and one can say from 1862, that 50% of his production was exported. Houdebine set up his workshops at number 64, rue de Turenne, in Paris during the period 1865-1880. He participated magnificently in several Universal Exhibitions, such those held in Paris in 1855, where he was awarded a 2nd class medal for his statuettes and display cups, in London in 1862, and again in Paris in 1878 and 1889, where he won a Gold medal for his all the works he exhibited. Houdebine participated finally in the Chicago Universal Exhibition of 1893, where he presented splendid cressets, clocks and some sculptures.
Henry Paul Hudelet (1849-1878)
Born in Langres in 1849, Henry Paul Hudelet entered the drawing school of his town in 1864 and continued his training at the Paris Fine Arts School in 1866, where he studied under the direction of the sculptor Augustin Dumont (1801-1884). Hudelet presented in the Fine Arts contest of 1867 a Mercury and an academy made after the antique, then two further works in the contest of 1869 with Achilles and a Bacchante playing with a panther. Hudelet exhibited at the Salon of the French artists in 1876 and 1877. That same year, he competed for the Grand Prix de Rome with a bas-relief of Fishermen finding the head of Orpheus on the banks of the Hebrus, molded to expense of the State (now in the Museum of Art and History of Langres) and the statue of The dice player. This talented artist died prematurely as he was about to compete once again for the Prix de Rome in 1878.
Pierre Nicolas Huilliot (1674-1751)
Coming from a famous family of painters, he learns from his father, Claude Huilliot, a very well known still-life painter. In 1722 he is elected at the "Académie Royale de Peinture". During his prestigious career, he works for the royal entourage in Versailles, Fontainebleau and Compiègne. This fecund artist paints with great taste the most simple subjects, such as animals, flowers, fruits or decorative landscapes. From 1737 to 1750, his still-life paintings, allegories and decorations are exhibited at the "Salon".
Georges Jacob (1739-1814)
After having been received Master in 1765, Georges Jacob worked from 1773 to the French Revolution for the Crown Furniture Repository. Its clientele was the most brilliant with Louis XVI and Queen MarieAntoinette, 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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Jean-Baptiste-Jules Klagmann (1810-1867)
The sculptor Jean-Baptiste-Jules Klagmann worked throughout his career in both a monumental scale, in marble and bronze sculpture, and on a smaller scale for goldsmiths. In 1828 he entered the École des BeauxArts (France’s leading, national fine arts academy), where he was taught by Jean-Jacques Feuchère (18071852). Feuchère introduced Klagmann to the art of the Renaissance with his decorative repertory. Klagmann made his debut at the Salon of 1831 and the French state as soon as 1841 commissioned him to execute the decoration of the doors of the Salle de Séances at the Senate. At the same time Klagmann was involved, alongside Feuchère, in the commission for a centrepiece from the Duc d’Orléans in 1834 and then cast by Jean-François Denière (1774-1866), now preserved at the Paris Decorative arts Museum (Inv. 18273). Klagman thus realised large decorative figures for a variety of Parisian buildings, theatres and the Louvre palace, recently enlarged by the Emporer Napoleon III, and continued to provide models for goldsmiths such as François-Désiré Froment-Meurice (sword of the Comte de Paris), François Durand (vase given by the Duc d’Orléans to the Goodwood races) and of course Charles Christofle (Isaac Pereire’s centerpiece, 1862). However, J.-B. Klagmann also produced first-rate works in collaboration with bronze-casters such as Guillaume Denière. In 1848, Klagmann was nominated for the council of the Gobelins, Beauvais and Sèvres manufactories and was also one of the founders of the Central Union of the Arts Applied to Industry.
maison Krieger (2nd half of the 19th century)
The Krieger firm began with Antoine Krieger (1804-1869) the cabinet-making activity in the middle of the 19th century, before setting an important inner decoration department which provided much success and prestige to the company until about 1945. The Krieger firm made all sketches and designs in all kind of styles, ancient or contemporary. About one thousand workers were employed at n°74-76 Faubourg-Saint-Antoine Street in Paris, producing luxurious as well as standard furniture. But the making was always of very high quality with oakwood or selected mahogany cabinets decorated with finely chosen veneers. The Krieger firm won several medals among which a second-class medal at the 1851 Universal Exhibition of London and took part in further international exhibitions, such as the one held in Paris in 1855.
Lacarrière - Delatour (19th century)
It was at 3 bis rue Ste-Elisabeth that Lacarrière, a simple craftsman opened a workshop that was soon to specialise and to excell in the production of bronze lighting equipment. From 1834 to 1844 he was awarded several prizes. Lacarrière, Delatour & Cie after 1870 cast and carved the great majority of the lamps, candelabras and chandeliers of the Paris Opera Garnier, among which the chandelier in the concert hall, designed by Garnier himself and modeled by Corboz. At the 1878 Universal Exhibition, there was a special note in the catalogue declaring that: "their exhibition proves their craft to be very pure and precise, their taste very sure in bronzes used for interior lighting". Lacarrière, Delatour & Cie participated in the creation of the chandelier at the Queen’s Theatre in London. They also produced fourteen monumental candelabras for the Paris Alexandre III Bridge, which was an amazing feat at the time considering some of the pieces weighed up to 1470 pounds, and measured 14 ft. 9 in. with a diametre of 15 ft. 5 in.
Eugène-Armand Lachaise (1857-1925)
Born 1857 in New York, Eugène-Armand Lachaise went to Paris to study painting. Installed at N°84 Avenue des Champs-Elysées, he became the pupil of some renowned artists such as Gustave Boulanger (1824-1888) and Jules Lefebvre (1836-1911). Both of them taught painting at the famous Julian Academy, located on Dragon Street in Paris. That art school was founded in 1868 in reaction to the established "École des Beaux-Arts". The reference books mention a remarked participation of E.-A. Lachaise in the 1888 "Salon", at the Paris Industry Palace on the Champs-Elysées, with a painted portrait of M. Le Commandant G... Lachaise became later a prized member of the "Paris Society of American Painters", whose goal was to promote American artists not only in Paris but through worldwide exhibitions. In the 1880’s, the Japanese subjects by Lachaise take place in the general artistic movement much in fashion in France: Japonism (named also Aesthetic Movement), whose the French leader was indoubtedly Edouard Manet (1832-1883). Having learned painting under the direction of French artists and leading his successful career in Paris, E.-A. Lachaise was naturally considered as a French artist. He was even awarded Knight of the Légion d’honneur, and Officer in that national Order during World War I. Lachaise died in Paris in 1925.
Jules-Isidore Lafrance (1841-1881)
Jules-Isidore Lafrance was a sculptor, himself the son of a sculptor ornamentalist. He studied sculpture under the direction of Francisque Duret (1804-1865) and Jules Cavelier (1814-1894). He began to exhibit his work at the Salon of 1861 (Repentant Magdalene) and won the Prix de Rome in 1870 (Samson breaking ties). Back from Rome, where he was seriously ill, he sculpted Mathieu Molé, Portrait of Puget, St. John, Achilles. For the Pavillon de Flore, at the Louvre palace, he received a commission in 1876 to sculpt two allegorical figures, Law and Prudence. He obtained a first class medal in 1874 and won a medal at the Universal Exhibition of 1878.
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Lerolle Frères
Alphonse Lerolle was a well-known bronze-caster based in Paris. Succeeding his father, he worked in partnership with his brother as Lerolle Frères, and specialised in Antiquarian bronzes in the Renaissance, Louis XIII and Louis XIV taste. Besides their bronze cast production, they also as soon as 1850 produced electrotyped pieces and participated in the Exhibitions of Fine Arts applied to Industry. Lerolle Frères exposed mainly furnishing objects and few art bronze casts, but they were much applauded during the 1878 Paris Universal Exhibition for having presented among clocks and chandeliers those superb Indian figures sculpted by Charles Cordier.
Adolphe-Alexandre Lesrel (1839-1929)
Adolphe-Alexandre Lesrel entered 1861 the Paris fine Arts School, in the Jean-Léon Gérôme’s (18241904) studio, one of the greatest artists of the second half of the 19th century, then in the Jean-LouisErnest Meissonier’s (1815-1891) studio, an artist whose popularity extended throughout Europe and the United States. Adolphe-Alexandre Lesrel painted historical genre scenes with a romanticized view of the past, in the highly detailed and finished style of his master, adopting then his meticulous academic style characterized by adhering to a strict manner of painting, following narrow compositional rules and delicacy of color. The atmospheric effects are then sumptuously luminescent. Lesrel was known for historical accuracy with a highly detailed and polished style. His most often used realistic indoors subjects, much appreciated among his contemporaries, were jovial musketeers, courtly love and the frivolity of the upper classes mainly dressed in Louis XIII period costumes. Fabrics, gowns, objets d’art, furniture, all were researched to ensure the historical accuracy of his work. His subject matter and technical virtuosity of his brushwork ensures his continuing popularity. Lesrel exposed during many years one or two paintings at the famous Paris Salon of the Society of French Artists as soon as 1885 and of the National Fine Arts Society from 1890. Throughout his career, Lesrel won prices, medals as well as official awards. At the 1889 Paris Universal Exhibition, he was awarded a honorable mention. In 1907, Lesrel left Paris for Genêts, his native town. He died there in 1929.
Ferdinand Levillain (1837-1905)
Ferdinand Levillain tudied under the sculptor Jouffroy (1806-1882), before making his debut in 1861 at the French Artists Salon where he continued to exhibit until 1903. At the 1867 Universal Exhibition in Paris, he was praised for a Neo-Greek style bronze cup he made for the firm of Blot et Drouard. He was not to become really famous, however, until 1871 thanks to his association with the great bronze founder Ferdinand Barbedienne, who began to exhibit Neo-Greek style lamps, cups, vases and candelabras on his stands. Levillain was averwhelmingly triumphant at the 1878 Universal Exhibition in Paris, where he was unanimously awarded the gold medal for his creations in the Classical style. The famous bronze-caster Servant (1828-c.1890) declared in the report of the jury for Artistic Bronzes that the work of Levillain "chased like the finest jewels" and "so diverse and pure of form (…) are of the highest degree of perfection". After receiving a first class medal at the 1884 Salon for a cup entitled "The Elements, the Months and the Seasons", he went on to win a silver medal at the 1889 Universal Exhibition in Paris.
Michel Liénard (1810-1870)
Sculptor and designer. He worked among others for Cavaillé-Coll (1811-1899), famous organ maker (organs in Saint Vincent de Paul in Paris and in the Bayeux cathedral), for the silversmith F. D. Froment-Meurice (Madeleine church in Paris), as well as cabinet-makers Ringuet-Leprince (1801-1886) and Guillaume Grohé.
Edouard Lièvre (1829-1886)
Edouard Lièvre 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 16th 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).
François Linke (1855-1946)
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 119
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".
Jan Lopienski (1838–1907)
Jan Lopienski created a bronze workshop in Warsaw in 1862. He studied in Warsaw, Cracow, Vienna and Paris. He established his reputation with the Louis XVI style bronze balustrade commissioned for the palace of Count Jan Zawisza in Warsaw, which awarded him a silver medal at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1878. Lopienski also executed numerous of great decorative pieces of great quality. Jan Lopienski had two sons, Grzegorz (1863-1939) and Felix (1866-1941), who took over their father’s business. They’ve been commissioned by the Polish State for many monuments, such in 1898, with the bronze cast of Adam Mickiewicz’ one.
Paul Louchet (1854 -1936)
Louchet Paul, born 1854, dead 1936, a French complete and gifted artist, worked at the beginning at chiselling bronze pieces, as shows the beautiful mount of this oriental vase. Much talented, he was then complimented by his contemporaries and became even President of the Bronze Manufacturers Society, located in Paris. Afterwards, he dedicated himself entirely to painting, studying under the direction of the academic painter Jules Lefebvre (1836-1911) and the landscape painter Henri Harpignies (1819-1916). Louchet exhibited his paintings, mostly landscapes, at the famous Paris "Salon". Critics admired his paintings: "Louchet’s works are delicate and secret, simply composed without glare nor emphasis". He was awarded 1896 member of the Paris Beaux-Arts Society. As a multi-talented artist (He was also a culptor and engraver), he was a close friend to the cabinetmaker Louis Majorelle (1859-1926), the glassmaker and jeweler René Lalique (1860-1945) and the Daum brothers. Man and his time, Paul Louchet was also the mayor of the town of Herblay (Seine et Oise) in 1887.
Lajos Markos (1917-1993)
The painter Lajos Markos was born 1917 in Marosvásárhely (Hungary). He was student at Fine Arts School of Budapest, where he was awarded the prestigious National Zrinyi Prix. During World War II he went to Italy, opened a workshop in Rome, then in Milano. He came in 1952 to the United States and quickly established himself in New York City as a major portraitist, with many of his subjects being celebrities such as John Wayne, Robert Kennedy, The Royal Family of King Hassan II and Pablo Casals. In his lifetime, Lajos Markos completed over 2,000 portraits. In the 1960s, he moved to Houston, Texas, where he expanded his interest to art of the American west.
Marnyhac et Cie (19th- 20th century)
Marnyhac et Cie was used as the commercial name for the Société des Marbres et Bronzes Artistiques de Paris (the Paris Marbles and Artistic Bronzes Society) which was established since the middle of 19th century in Paris, on the Opera avenue and then at N.1, rue de la Paix. Managed by Charles de Marnyhac, the bronzefoundry company specialized production of luxurious pieces as well as casts from models made by the greatest sculptors of the time, such as Jean-Baptiste Clésinger (1814-1883), Amédée Charron (1847-1937) and Eugène Despléchin (1852-1926). The Marnyhac firm was awarded a medal at the 1878 Universal Exhibition, and showed again their works at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1900. The company closed down around 1910.
Emilio Marsili (1841-1926)
Emilio Marsili, a Venitian sculptor who was the pupil of the renowned artist Ettore Ferrari (1844-1929) at the Fine Arts Academy in Venice. As many Italian artists of his time, he spent a while in Paris and Brussels. Marsili knew then increasing success with his portraits as well as his sculpted memorials. He participated in the 1880 Turin Fine Arts Exhibition, then in the 1881 Milano Exhibition, where he exposed his famous Vocazione, which was awarded a medal. Marsili also showed his beautiful work at the various art fairs of Vienna in 1882 and again in Turin in 1884, where he presented low-relief plaques (Music, Architecture, Sculpture) among further sculpted busts (Snow, Do ré mi fa). He drew much consideration with the busts of Victor Emmanuel II (1879) and Garibaldi (1885), made for the town of Pordenone, as well as with the monument dedicated to Paolo Sarpi (1892) at Campo Santa Fosca, in Venice. In his native city of Venice, he executed the low-reliefs set in the Piétà Church and also decorated the Franchetti Palace. In Paris, Marsili participated in the 1889 Universal Exhibition, where he won a bronze medal. He exposed at the famous Venice Biennale as soon as 1895. Acclaimed by critics and awarded by jurys, Marsili is wellknown all over the world, from Paris to San Francisco. The greatest Italian modern art museums now show some of his works, such in Turin (The Pinafore dress, 1882), in Venice (Thought, Swallows), or at the Rome National Gallery of Modern Art with a bronze figural group (Maternity), exhibited first in Venice in 1887 with very much success.
Charles Stanislas Matifat (active since 1840)
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 120
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 JeanBaptiste 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.
Léon Messagé (1842-1901)
Léon Messagé is ornemanist and designer. When drawing his ornaments, he related to the Rocaille asymmetry found in the sketchbooks of Nicolas Pineau or J. A. Meissonier, famous ornemanists of the first part of the 18th century. But even though Messagé found inspiration with these artists, 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 gray 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 and François Linke. 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. Notably, the "Louis XV style régulateur surmounted by a motif representing Time", which was at first executed in Terra Cotta by Messagé. It was presented by Linke at the 1900 Universal Exhibition under the number 551.
Auguste Metgé (1883-1910)
The cabinet-maker Auguste Metgé followed courses at the École des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse from 1899 until 1903, and won a scholarship from the Regional Council in order to continue his art studies in Paris, where he finally exhibited sculptures and paintings at the Salon des French Artists in 1910. He took after the family entreprise, making seats and carved furniture in Sorèze (Southern France), and thanks to his education and talent, he gave a new impetus to the workshop, which quickly specialized in the artistic cabinet-making. Auguste Metgé created furniture and ensure their perfect realization. While performing his own drawings, woodworking and carving, his wife made on her own the inlay work after her husband’s compositions. The finely executed subjects took their source in the Sorèze landscape. Marked by the Great War (1914-18), Auguste Metgé withdrew gradually, responding to very few commands. His work include the bas-reliefs of the Memorials in Sorèze and Durfort, and a Christ for the Benedictine Abbey in En Calcat. Metgé was a member of the jury for the "Greatest France Craftsman", and was awarded the "Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur", France’s hightest official mark of recognition.
maison Millet (active from 1853 until 1818)
The firm of Millet T. was founded in Paris in 1853. A very talented specialist in 18th century reproductions, Millet produced furniture and artistic bronzes of the highest quality. He was one of the few cabinet-makers to obtain authorisation from the Château de Versailles to make a replica of Queen Marie-Antoinette’s great jewel cabinet. As an artist of great merit he 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 photographic archives show, among some views taken in the Millet’s workshop and his parisian shop, the stand held by him during the Saint-Louis Universal Exhibition of 1904. Among Millet’s masterpieces then exposed, this chimney decoration is to be seen. The firm lasted until 1918.
Martha Darlay Mutrie (1824-1886) and Annie Ferray Mutrie (1826-1893)
Martha Darlay Mutrie and Annie Ferray Mutrie were born in Manchester in 1824 and 1826. Both were pupils of Georges Wallis at the Royal Academy of Manchester. They specialized in still life paintings of flowers and fruits. Between 1851 and 1882, they showed their work at the Royal Academy of Manchester and Royal Academy of London exhibitions. They were greatly appreciated by British high society ladies. They also participated in numerous Universal Exhibitions, held such in Paris in 1867. Martha Darlay Mutrie was rewarded at the exhibitions of 1855 in Paris, 1876 in Philadelphia, 1879 in Sydney and 1880 in Melbourne.
Victor Paillard (1805-1886)
Victor Paillard was one of the most distinguished bronze-casters in Paris during the second half of the 19th century. He was taught chasing by Guillaume Denière (1815-1903), then opened in the 1830’s his own workshop making "Art bronzes and Furnishing bronzes", settled n°105 boulevard Beaumarchais in Paris. He executed first small objects, then cast statuettes, candelabra, clocks as well as impressive sized torcheres. He appeared to the public for the first time at the Industrial Products Exhibition of 1839 and worked for the greatest French sculptors, such as Pradier, Barye and Carrier-Belleuse. He exhibited extensively with great success being
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mentioned for the quality of his work at the famous 1851 and 1862 London Universal Exhibitions, and the 1855, 1867 and 1878 Universal Exhibitions then held in Paris. Paillard was there celebrated by everyone for the exceptional quality of his work. Appointed a Chevalier of the "Légion d’honneur" by the French Government, Paillard employed since the 1850’s a hundred workers and proposed to his wealthy clients about four hundreds models, cast in bronze not only after famous sculptors’ works, but also after his own creations. It is especially interesting that his "Cherub" figures, such as those ones presented here were particularly singled out for their charm and popularity by commentators at both the 1862 and 1867 Universal Exhibitions. Burney Waring noted that they portrayed the "happy and innocent moods of childhood".
Paris Porcelain (18th - 19th century)
Since the discovery of kaolin, needed material for the making of porcelain, porcelain factories also called porcelain manufactures are on the increase in all France and naturally in Paris. Most of those manufactures worked in the 18th century under the protection of a member of the Royal family, such the comte de Provence, future Louis XVIII, who protected the Clignancourt manufacture. But during and the 19th century, numerous pieces did bear no making mark. It was then almost imposssible to attribute them to any particular Parisian factory, hence the expression "Paris porcelain" or "Vieux Paris" including all those various productions.
Henri Pernot (1859-1937)
Henri Pernot born in Gent (Belgium) in 1859, was naturalized French. He studied sculpture at the Fine Arts School in Brussels. He was a renowned sculptor, well reguarded during his lifetime. He set up his workshop in Paris, participating with success as soon as 1895 at the famous Paris Salon of the French Artists (Salon des Artistes Français), where he was awarded a "mention honorable" in 1897 with "the Wolf Trap", then a third class medal in 1904. He steadily attended this Salon where he was a member since 1906. He won in 1909 a second class medal with "Coquettery". H. Pernot also supplied beautiful models to the porcelain manufacture of Sèvres.
Jacob Petit (1796-1865)
The famous French porcelain artist Jacob Petit (1796-1865) owned one of the most important and wellknown porcelain factories in France, becoming one of the major producers of Rococo ornamental ware during the 1830s. He however didn’t attend to become a ceramist and began by studying painting under the painter Antoine-Jean Gros (1771-1835) and then travelled throughout Europe. England gave him a taste for ornamentation and back in France in 1830, he was quick to issue an interior design book including everything about furniture. Soon, it seemed china best way to express his taste and created a workshop at the Sèvres Manufacture. Jacob Petit (nickname composed of his first name Jacob Mardoché and his wife’s family name) started a business in Belleville (Paris). He then bought in 1838 the porcelain small Baruch Weill business located in Fontainebleau. This was so successful that Jacob Petit tripled the number of workers. In 1850, he gathered his two factories in Avon, and retired in 1862 at Paradise-Poissonnière street in Paris, giving his business to one of his workers named Jacquemain. Jacob Petit was imitated throughout Europe and his highly decorative porcelain was enormously popular in both England and France.
Raphaël Charles Peyre (1872-1949)
Raphaël Charles Peyre was born in Paris in 1872. He studied sculpture at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris with renowned sculptors Alexandre Falguière, Antonin Mercié and Théodore Barreau. He inherited the classical vocabulary, themes and emotional figures from which emerges grace combining flexibility with naturalist strength, which made thus him a brilliant French sculptor of the first half of the 20th century. During his career, Peyre regularly presented his work at the Paris Salon des Artistes Français where he is awarded several medals such at the 1902 and 1903 salons. He often worked with woman and childhood themes.
Henri Picard (active since 1831)
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.
Emile-Louis Picault (1833-1915) Emile-Louis Picault, 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. 122
Jean Pillement (1728-1808)
Jean-Pillement was born in a family of painters and was a student of Daniel Sarrabat in Lyon. Jean Pillement began to work at an early age for the Gobelins manufacture. He became official painter not only to Queen Marie-Antoinette of France but also to the King of Poland, Stanislas Auguste. During the artist’s journey in Vienna, his landscapes were in great demand by the Prince of Liechtenstein and also by a wide range of private clients in London, where he was an active and greatly popular member of the artistic society there. J. Pillement achieved success not only as a landscape painter but was also one of the most influential decorators of the 18th century. His chinoiseries, arabesques and flower paintings providing elegant leitmotives for furniture makers, tapestry weavers, and particularly in his old age, for the Manufacture de Soie et des Indiennes in Lyon, where he ended his distinguished career.
Georges et Constantin Potheau (Late 19thcentury)
Georges and Constantin Potheau took over the cabinet-making 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 luxuruous. 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.
Jean-Louis Prieur (18th century)
Jean-Louis Prieur (born circa 1725) was the most famous member of the Prieur family, an important dynasty of ciseleurs (chiselors). Active from 1765 to 1775, he was a member of Académie de Saint-Luc at the time of its dissolution in 1776. He was known as an «ornament sculptor, modeleur and ciseleur». In 1777, he lived at Faubourg Saint-Denis. He was chosen to execute the ormolu ornamentation for the coach of King Louis XVI coronation.
Raingo Frères founded in 1813
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).
The "Royal Worcester Porcelain Company Ltd" (19th century)
On the retirement of William Henry Kerr (1823 – 1879) in 1862, The Worcester Royal Porcelain Company Limited was formed with Richard William Binns (1819 – 1900) and Edward Phillips (d.1881) as joint managing directors. Between 1851 and 1887 the Severn Street factory expanded from 70 to 700 employees. Royal Worcester kept pace with public demand for novelty in design with the development of a wide range of new materials and glazes, including glazed and unglazed Parian, earthenware, majolica and bone china. The firm concentrated on the production of figures and vases, introducing over 2500 new decorative items between 1862 and 1900. The Victorians believed that good designs from the past should be adapted and improved to create tasteful new designs. They favoured a mixture of period and foreign styles including Japanese, French Empire, Persian, Indian, Renaissance and Classical Greek. The Aesthetic Movement – In the 1860’s, after 100 years of isolation the Japanese started to trade again with Europe. In 1872 His Excellency Sionii Tomomi Iwakura, Junior Prime Minister of Japan, visited Royal Worcester and saw Japanese style wares being made for display in Vienna the following year. Japanese bronzes, ivories and prints, purchased by R.W. Binns in Europe, inspired the Worcester craftsmen who did not slavishly copy, but adapted ideas for the English market.
Rousseau brothers
Rousseau brothers, Jean-Siméon Rousseau de Rottière (1747-1820) and Jean-Hugues Rousseau, named Rousseau the elder (1743-1806) are best known for having worked to the apartments of the Dauphin at Versailles as soon as 1772, then for having achieved the boudoir of Marie-Antoinette at Fontainebleau castle and queen’s cabinet rooms in 1783 in Versailles p alace. The originality of Rousseau was to exercise both the trade of painter and sculptor for ornaments, and to excel in the genre of «arabesques», mixing painted medallions imitating low-reliefs and paintings whose «grotesques» were inspired from the ancient Domus Aurea in Rome. Rousseau brothers realized similar «arabesques» for the cabinet room in the Mégret Serilly mansion in Paris (panels now exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London), and for the salon in the Hosten mansion (panels now preserved at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu).
Charles Rudhardt (1829-1895)
Charles Rudhardt, born 1829 in Geneva, dead 1895 in Paris, was a great ceramist of the 19th century, as well as a talented painter. He settled in Paris in 1862, founded a workshop and presented at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1867 some earthenware imitating the "old Rouen" and "Urbino" decors. He is also mentioned as a painter producing at the famous earthenware Loebnitz manufacture. Ch. Rudhardt then worked in Longwy, a famous place for fine decorative earthenware, where he not 123
only produced prestigious pieces in collaboration with renowned artists such as the painter Eugène Carrière (1849-1906), but also executed his own creations. His signature is however relatively rare in Longwy, dating between 1882 and 1893, therefore a very brief period revealing his interesting work. Rudhardt achieved landscapes and portraits sometimes in addition of flowers in relief. As a creative and independent artist, some of his works bear only his own signature without the Longwy mark.
Marius Joseph Saïn (1877-1961)
Marius Joseph Saïn, born 1877 near Avignon, dead 1961, studied sculpture at the École des Beaux-Arts in Avignon and Marseille. He was awarded there several medals and awards. Following the death of his parents in 1901, for whom he raised a monument to their memory (Montfavet cemetery, Vaucluse), he came to Paris in 1902 and moved rue de Seine. He successfully passed the exam to integrate the prestigious Paris École des Beaux-Arts and won the Avignon City scholarship. He became the student of Gabriel Thomas, Antoine Injalbert, Henri Allouard and Félix Charpentier, and he struck up a friendship with several artists from Avignon in 1903. Saïn finally participated in the third exhibition of the Vaucluse Society of Friends of the Arts as well as in the famous Paris salon of the Society of French Artists, where he exhibited A la recherche des crabes, a work which gained him an honorable mention and acquired by the Baron Rothschild for the Grenoble Fine Arts Museum. In 1910, Marius Saïn obtained a travel grant due to its participation in the Salon of the Colonial Society of French Artists. He went live several months in Algeria where he reported several orientalist models. In 1912, he went to Greece, but was 1914 mobilized for war. In 1922, Marius Saïn received the prize of the Society of navigation, awarded by the Colonial Society of French artists, and won the prize of French Equatorial Africa. In 1924, he exhibited at the Salon of the Colonial Society the two plaster models of an Arab girl and a young shepherd presented here. In 1926 Saïn was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor and exhibited at the Salon of the Society of French Artists until 1935.
Edmé Samson (1810-1891)
Edmé Samson, painter on ceramics established 1845 at n°7 rue in Paris, bought his white porcelain pieces, in other words undecorated porcelains from various Paris manufactures. His son, Emile (1837-1913) who succeeded him, began to make reproductions from older models. Exhibiting at the 1863 Exposition of the fine Arts applied to Industry, Emile Samson became particularly noted for his porcelain works imitating the "Old Japan" ones. He installed in 1864 a factory in Montreuil-sous-Bois, nearby Paris and enjoyed great success at the Paris International Exhibition of 1867 with their imitations of Saxony, China and Japan porcelain pieces, all considered of very fine quality. At the 1889 Universal Exhibition, Samson & Cie was deemed to be specialized in large size pieces, made either in porcelain or earthenware, whose models were chosen from the most wellknown museums, such as the Louvre Museum in Paris and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. In 1891, Emile went into partnership with his son Léon (1868-1928), under the name Samson & Son, who gave a major extension to the factory, employing a large number of workers and decorators. In addition to the manufacturing of porcelain, they also made their own bronze decorative mounts used on the pieces.
Jean-Baptiste-Claude Séné (1748-1803)
Jean-Baptiste-Claude Séné member of a family of carpenters and cabinetmakers, was received as a mastercarpenter in 1769. In 1785, Queen Marie-Antoinette bought Saint-Cloud Castle from the Duke of Orléans. At first, it was quickly furnished with simple furniture or taken from other residences. Then the GardeMeuble de la Couronne (Crown Furniture Repository) ordered the making of seats made of high standard quality so that the king and queen could enjoy their furnished apartments during their 1788 Spring journey. This command was made under the direction of the Quarter general master of the Crown Furniture Repository and of the Minister of Finance in order to refurnish the royal residences. To do this, they assigned to this task carpenters like Georges Jacob, Jean-BaptisteBoulard and Jean-Baptiste-Claude Séné, whom for the last one became one of the leading suppliers of the Royal Furniture Repository, making then the most beautiful Louis XVI style furniture, as evidenced by the bed he made for Queen Marie-Antoinette at Fontainebleau and King Louis XVI’s bed at Saint-Cloud.
Georges Emile Henri Servant (1828-c. 1890)
Georges Emile Henri Servant, 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. But his success came really at the 1867 Paris Universal Exhibition, where he was awarded a gold medal for his neo-Greek works, among which was exposed this "vase of Bacchus". Jules Mensard explains in his report of the exhibition (Les Merveilles de l’Exposition Universelle de 1867, t. II, p° 165 & 167): "The general shape and the details (of the piece) reach perfection in character and taste, and bear the same stamp as the best works left to us by antiquity, notably those from Pompeii, which was Roman, although many of the vases found there were of pure Greek style... This vase of Bacchus is made entirely of bronze". Servant was even awarded in 1874 the "Ordre national de la Légion d’Honneur", France’s highest 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. 124
Louis-Constant Sévin (1821-1888)
Louis-Constant Sévin was apprenticed to the parisian sculptor Marneuf. In 1839, he joined the sculptormodelors 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.
The Sèvres Manufacture (active since 1738)
The Sèvres factory of soft-paste porcelain was created, about 1738 at Vincennes by bankers and financiers with the aim of making true or "hard-paste" porcelain, like Meissen did. In 1753 Louis XV, became a major shareholder and the manufactory was transferred to Sèvres, closer to Versailles and the château de Bellevue, acquired by the Marquise de Pompadour. The Marquise took a personal interest in Sèvres activities, and encouraged production. In 1759, Louis XV bought out the other shareholders and Sèvres became the exclusive property of the France Crown. From then, the manufactury mark was a symmetrically crossed Ls (the royal monogram) together with a letter indicating the year. The period between 1756 to 1779 represents the most successful and prosperous years for the factory. Louis XV, ordered large services for diplomatic and royal presents. The foremost artists, like the painters Boucher or Bachelier, the sculptors Falconet or Boizot, worked for Sèvres, creating models. Experimentation in order to discover the hard-paste porcelain technic continued, and was discovered after 1769. The factory produced with success both soft-paste and hard-paste porcelain. In these years the most famous ground colours were invented: the dark blue (bleu lapis) about 1752, the turquoise blue (bleu céleste) in 1753, the applegreen in 1756, the famous rose in 1757, and the king’s blue in 1763. These remarkable pieces were usually painted with scenes form engraving by famous painters (François Boucher) or ornementalists, with garlands, baskets of flowers and trophies. The production included sculptures ("l’Amour menaçant" by Falconet), large services (the service for Rambouillet was delivered to Marie-Antoinette in 1788), decorative and utilitarian objects. The "marchands-merciers" played an important role in supporting the factory and making its production popular. Daguerre was the first to decorate furniture with porcelain, one of the most striking innovations of the century and one of the most admired today.
Paul Sormani (1817-1877)
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, who admired Queen Marie-Antoinette and the style at her time, furnished her palaces in the Louis XVI style, with some 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 (circa 1877), his wife and son took over the business and from this date onwards pieces are normally signed "Veuve Sormani & Fils à Paris".
Arthur Strasser (1854-1927)
Arthur Strasser, born 1854 in Adelsberg, dead 1927 in Vienna, was an Austrian sculptor. He studied from 1871 until 1875 at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. He marked his early interest in sculpture. With a scholarship he was able to continue and expand his studies in Paris from 1881 until 1883. He then returned to Vienna to sculpt his work in the naturalistic style. In 1892, Strasser took the painter Charles Wilda (18541907) to a trip to Egypt, where he found inspiration for his art. He directed particularly his attention to the representation of typical Arab country-people, dressed in traditional clothes. Being one of the leaders of Orientalism, he chose very carefully the right colour for his bronze patina, appearing as naturalistic. Those sculptures were quite popular with buyers who were also in the Austrian imperial family. In 1893, he received the Imperial Prize, an d in 1896, the Great Golden States Medal. He became professor in 1899, taking over the sculpture class at the Vienna School of Applied Arts. Arthur Strasser was certainly not a revolutionary reformer, but his natural subtle design could put some momentum in accordance with The Vienna Secession, seeking to move away from the prevailing historicism and appointing several new professors to give the new teaching ideas. Strasser created for the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900, the bronze statuary of Marc-Antony on his triumphal char.
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Susse (19th century)
Susse Company 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 reknown foundry, the Susse company began to cast pieces as soon as the first half of the 19th century The most wellknown 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.
Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751-1843)
Pierre-Philippe Thomire was considered as one of the most talented bronze-chaser under the First Empire. He studied chasing with the renowned Pierre Gouthière (1732-1813) and installe then in 1776 his Paris workshop, where all the famous cabinet-makers and the Sèvres Manufacture went into, to embellish their own production. Thomire was many time commissioned to ornate with light fittings and clocks the various Imperial residences, such as the Tuileries Palace, the Saint-Cloud Palace and the Fontainebleau Palace.
Armand Toussaint (1806-1862)
Armand Toussaint (1806-1862) who was son of a Paris locksmith, trained with him before entering the Paris Fine Arts School in 1827. He followed the sculpture teachings of David d’Angers (1788-1856) and won the second Grand Prix de Rome in 1832 with the subject of Capaneus strucked down under the walls of Thebes. Toussaint exhibited the first time at the Salon of 1836 by presenting A young Farmer finding a Sword. He obtained a third class medal at the Salon of 1839 and a second class medal to the 1847 Salon. Armand Toussaint has specialized very early in monumental sculptures with reliefs and figures, such in 1839 at the PèreLachaise cimetery for the Forestier’s tomb with A seated young Woman. The following year he participated in the project of the Dampierre Castle by making for the Duke of Luynes the sculpted decor of the main staircase and the Four Seasons drawing room. At the Salon of 1847, he exhibited the Indian Slave holding a torch and the Indian Slave maid holding a torch. On February 23, 1850 the French Home Office commissioned him to cast in bronze these both sculptures. The pair was then delivered to the Elysee Palace, France President residence. These two torcheres were cast by Marly-Graux and Barbedienne under the title The two Indians. Besides, the Barbedienne foundry also cast further Armand Toussaint’s works, such the medallion Laissez venir à moi les petits Enfants, made in four sizes. In 1851, it made thus Law, Justice and Two seated Children for the clock of the Justice Palace in Paris. He executed several statues for the west front of Our-Lady Cathedral in Paris (St Marcel, St Peter, St Etienne, St Martin). In 1852 Toussaint was awarded the Cross of the Legion of Honor. In 1854 he made one of his greatest commands: the pediment of the newly built St. Clotilde Church in Paris, representing Christ surrounded by two angels bearing the instruments of the Passion. Also portraitist, Armand Toussaint sculpted a bust of David d’Angers in 1861 (exhibited in the David d’Angers museum, Angers) and a statue of Dr. Esquirol (1860, Charenton Hospital).
Willem Jan van den Berghe (1823-1901)
Willem Jan van den Berghe, born in 1823 in The Hague, Holland, became known as a painter of genre subjects and landscapes animated with figures. He participated in the 1858 exhibition held in Amsterdam.
Georges van der Straeten (1856-1928)
Georges van der Straeten, born in Ghent (Belgium) in 1856, dead 1928 in Paris, began his sculptor career in 1882, after having trained as a lawyer. He studied sculpture in Belgium under G. Kasteleyn and Jef Lambeaux, and left then Ghent for Paris, where he lived from 1883 until 1928. He met there a group of Belgian artists and was in particular very close to the painters Jan Van Beers and Rik Wouters. Straeten exhibited regularly his works at the Salon. He took inspiration from Antoine Watteau’s paintings to realize his numerous busts, made with elegant gestures and full of lively charm.
Joseph van Severdonck (1819-1905)
Joseph van Severdonck was a Belgian painter. He studied painting under Baron Wappers (1803-1874) from Anvers. He specialized in historical and military paintings, including animals, what also classified J. van Severdonck among animal painters. He also painted classic style allegories. He became professor at the Royal Academy of Brussels and had many pupils, among them, Walter Shaw Sparrow, whom considered him a "noted character" and wrote of him in his memoirs. J. van Severdonck is considered to be one of the last representative painter of the Rubens School. He also became the appointed professor to Queen Marie Henriette, wife of King Leopold II of Belgium.
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Emilio Vasarri (1862-1928)
Emilio Vasarri born in Montevarchi, in the province of Arezzo, in Tuscany, studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. Talented drawer and brilliant colourist, he regularly exhibited from 1878, both in Rome and Palermo, works full of meticulous details. He came to Paris in the late 19th century, where he participated in the Salon of French Artists. At the 1900 Universal Exhibition, Emilio Vasarri was awarded a bronze medal, then a mention honorable at the 1904 Salon. As Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) and Ernest Meissonier (1815-1891), Emilio Vasarri specialized in genre scenes, referring to the ancient Greco-Roman period. Keen on detail and picturesque, he painted with such a prodigious talent the various colored fabrics and matching jewelry.
André César Vermare (1869-1949)
André César Vermare (son of sculptor André Vermare) grew up in a French and Italian renaissance admiration. He studies sculpture at the Lyon École des Beaux-Arts, where he receives a gold medal in 1889 before joining the workshop of Alexandre Falguière (1837-1900) in Paris. In 1899, André César Vermare wins the "Premier Prix de Rome" for a plaster bas relief representing "Adam and Eve finding the body of Abel". This sculpted group, "triangular and compact, in a clay and smoke recently born world decor", is still displayed at the Paris École des Beaux Arts.
Henri Vian (19th century)
Henri Vian, a bronze-caster active in the second half of the 19th century, made a lot of interior decorations with chimney mantelpieces, ormolu and patinated-mounted vases, chandeliers,… He became especially renowned for his light decorations of high quality.
Gabriel Viardot (1830-1906) 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 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.
Emmanuel Villanis (1858-1914)
The sculptor Emmanuel Villanis was born on 12 December 1858 in Lille, from Italian parents. In March 1861, the Italian Kingdom was proclaimed and the Villanis settled back in their country, in the Piemont region. From 1871 to 1880, Emmanuel Villanis studied at the Albertina Fine Arts Academy in Turin, under the direction of the renowned sculptor Odoardo Tabacchi (1831-1905). As soon as he finished his studies, E. Villanis exposed in various Italian cities, such with Alda, a bust exhibited in Milano in 1881. In 1885, Villanis returned to France, for living and working in Montmartre, where he stayed untill his death in 1914. From 1886 until 1910, he participated eleven times in the famous Paris Salon des Artistes Français, where he was awarded the Mention Honorable in 1892 for two plaster sculptures. Among his seventeen sculpted works shown there: Nérina (1887 Salon); Galtée (1894 Salon); Mignon (1896 Salon) and Judith (1898 Salon). E. Villanis also participated in numerous Universal Exhibitions, such the the 1889 Paris Universal Exhibition, where he won the Mention Honorable for La Souricière. He sent to the 1893 Chicago Paris Universal Exhibition two busts named Europe and Orient.Madeleine au passage du Christ. Villanis avait déjà reçu cette même récompense en 1889, à l’Exposition Universelle de Paris, pour la statue La Souricière. Quatre ans plus tard, en 1893, à l’Exposition Universelle de Chicago, il envoya deux bustes: Europe et Orient.
Lina de Weiler (1823-c.1880)
Lina de Weiler (or von Weiler), born in Mannheim in 1823, in the dukedom of Bade (Germany) came to France in order to study painting at the Parisian School of Fine Arts, under the direction of the famous portrait painter Léon Cogniet (1794-1880). There she met Edmond Lebel (1834-1908) who was soon to be noticed for his Italian scenes. In 1857 Lina de Weiler exhibited a full length portrait of sir William Forbes at the Living Artists Salon which took place in the Palace of Industry on the Champs-Elysées. With increasing success, she sent numerous portraits as well as some genre scenes to the 1859 Salon. These gentle and romantic scenes, as shows our painting The Return, won the favour of the public and were at the forefront since the 1861 Salon. The subjects of Lina de Weiler’s paintings sometimes also included landscapes of her place of birth, as attested by the Fording of the river: Recalling the Black Forest, exhibited at the 1864 Salon. Thanks to the catalogues of these Salons, where she exhibited her works until 1880, it is quite simple to follow our artist from one Parisian address to another: 5 rue Ménilmontant in 127
1857; 9 rue Duperré from 1858 until 1861; 21 rue Pigalle in 1866, the year she exposed The Return; 32 rue Blanche in 1869 and 6 rue de Milan from 1870 until 1880.
Adam Weisweiler (1744-1820)
Adam Weisweiler became Master in cabinet-making on March 26th 1778. He settled his workshops in Paris, on FaubourgSaint-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 Musuem, the Paris Decorative Arts Museum, the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Albert Willms (19th century)
Albert Willms was apprenticed as modeler and engraver to Klagman, Dieterle and Constant in Paris before working for Morel & Co. in London in 1848. On his return to Paris he was employed by the great Parisian silversmiths including Christofle and Froment-Meurice, for whom he designed pieces to be presented at the 1855 Universal Exhibition in Paris. It was during this period that he joined the firm of Elkington in London as head decorator. Elkington was soon to become one of the first to produce refined pieces in "champlevé" enamel in the Chinese and Japanese styles, which were presented with great success at the London Universal Exhibition in 1862 (see Masterpieces of Industrial Art & Sculpture at the International Exhibition 1862, J.B. Waring, London, 1863, III, pl. 211). Willms’ "champlevé" enamels could not be compared, however, with the delicate "cloisonné" enamels exhibited by Japan at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1867. This explains why Elkington adapted the ancient Japanese technique to produce pieces according to European taste and custom. Followings the 1867 Exhibition all the major European artists rivaled in ingenuity for the 1873 Universal Exhibition in Vienna. In London Albert Willms presented his luxurious vases and cups in "cloisonné" enamel for Elkington (see Illustrations of Art Manufacturers in the Precious Metals exhibited by Elkington & Co., Inventors, Patentees and Manufactures of electroplate, 1873), whilst in Paris, Ferdinand Thesmar (1843-1912) produced in the workshops of Ferdinand Barbedienne (1810-1892) a tray decorated with a golden pheasant in "cloisonné" enamel on copper and Emile-Auguste Reiber (1826-1893) designed for the Christofle firm, a large clock with matching candelabras in the Japanese style (Musée d’Orsay, Paris, Inv. O.A.O. 1360-1361) with "cloisonné" enamels executed by Antoine Tard. Albert Willms never the less became a specialist of "cloisonné" enamel on gilt metal between 1870 and 1876. The Universal Exhibitions where Elkington presented to the public his latest creations in the Japanese style, assured him a resounding success, as at the Philadelphia Exhibition in 1876 with an extensive set of vases and dishes in "cloisonné" enamel (reproduced in Contributions to the Centennial and International Exhibition at Philadelphia, 1876, London, 1876). Referring to his enamels the critics said "They surpass by far modern Chinese and Japanese works and approach the exquisite beauty of ancient Japanese pieces".
Charles-Guillaume Winckelsen (1812-1871)
Born in 1812, Charles-Guillaume Winckelsen is one of the most talented cabinet-makers of the Second Empire period, taking inspiration from 18th century furniture. He mainly used the Louis XVI style decorative motifs but without reverting to simple pastiche and creating then beautiful furniture. Winckelsen’s bronze casting was of the highest quality. He had his workshops in Paris at N°23 Val-Sainte-Catherine in 1854, moved in 1860 to N°21 rue Saint-Louis in the Marais, and in 1867 to N°49 rue de Turenne. His production varied from furniture to decorative works of art, specializing in particular in the Louis XVI style to a very high quality standard. As a very talented cabinet-maker he was often honoured the commands from the aristocrats as well as the Paris wealthy high society, such as Lafitte, de Béhague, prince Radziwill. Following Winckelsen’s death in 1871, Henry Dasson (1825-1896) purchased on July 27 the workshop and stock from Winckelsen’s widow.
Jean-Henri Zweiner-Jansen (1854-1928)
"Z.J".
Jean-Henri Jansen founded the famous interior decoration firm of Maison Jansen in 1880. Manufacturing revival and Nouveau furniture he became Fournisseur de la Cour d’Espagne and was awarded a Silver Medal at both the 1883 Amsterdam Exhibition and the Paris 1889 Exposition Universelle.The firm relocated to 9, rue Royale, Paris, in 1885 around wich time it incorporated the established firm of JosephEmmanuel Zwiener, renaming it Zwiener Jansen Successeur and adopting the practice stamping pieces,
Joseph-Emmanuel Zwiener (active from 1880 to 1895)
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 128
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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TOBOGAN ANTIQUES 14 Avenue Matignon. 75008 Paris. France For all information, please contact us on : Tel : + 33 1 42 86 89 99 Email : tobogan.antiques@wanadoo.fr 130