Various types of wood

H. 75 cm, W. 175 cm, D. 95 cm

Wood and bronze

H. 75 cm, Diam. (bronze) 66,50 cm

Provenance: Antwerp ZOO

Swedish architect and furniture designer Axel Einar Hjorth was greatly inspired by the French Art Deco movement. He often used fine and expensive materials to craft furnishings, such as tables, cabinets, chairs, and sofas in various kinds of wood such as oak, birch, and rosewood. His designs are characterized by the use of classical themes, a design ethos later adopted by a younger generation of architects and designers and absorbed into aspects of Modernism in Sweden. Creating designs for a variety of Swedish furniture manufacturers, including the Stockholm department store Nordiska Kompaniet, Hjorth contributed to the burgeoning Swedish design culture and the international recognition it began to receive in the 1920s.

Axel Einar Hjorth was born in 1888 in Krokek outside Norrköping. He spent his first years alone with his mother Clara Mathilda Hjort (without h) in very modest circumstances. At the age of twelve his life changed dramatically: he was placed as a foster-child with a wealthy family. In 1908, 20 years old, he moved to Stockholm where he started studying at the Högre Konstindustriella Skolan which became later on the Konstfack (University College of Arts, Crafts and Design). When his stepfather Gustav Theodore Nordin died in 1910, he was left without any heritage, and therefore forced to break off his studies.

In 1914 Axel Einar Hjorth married Gunelia Wessberg. Their marriage remained childless but opened a second time the doors to the bourgeoisie. Around 1920 he worked as a furniture designer with different manufacturers – such as H. Joop & co, Myrstedt & Stern and Jonssons – and in 1920, for a short period at the furniture design office of Nordiska Kompaniet under the architect Carl Bergsten (1879-1935). At about the same time, he started working with Stockholms stads hantverksförening, a collaboration running simultaneously with other commissions and employments right up to 1929.

For just over a year Hjorth worked as the head of the assembly section of Jubileumsutställningen (the Jubilee Exhibition) in Gothenburg in 1923. The English critic Philip Morton Shand (1888-1960) has characterized this exhibition as the beginning of the breakthrough of Swedish decorative arts: "The Gothenburg Exhibition of 1923 revealed [...] that [Sweden was] almost the only one that really counted as far as design and craftsmanship were concerned." As the head of the mounting section, Hjorth combined the products of the exhibitors with the overall valid aesthetic idea of the exhibition's management. The display of goods at the Gothenburg exhibition was consequently mainly his work. At this exhibition he also displayed furniture he had created himself and that was made by, among others, Svenska Möbelfabrikerna in Bodafors which became one of his major customers. They produced some of his models right up to the 1940s.

In 1925 Axel Einar Hjorth and David Nilsson coordinated Stockholms stads hantverksförenings jubileumsutställning at Liljevalchs konsthall (art gallery). As the architect of the exhibition as well as the creator of four different interior schemes, Hjorth was not able to participate in the Paris exhibition that year – nor was Stockholms stads hantverksförening. However, together with Carl Hörvik (1882-1954) and Carl Malmsten (1888-1972), he represented Stockholms stads hantverksförening at the exhibition of contemporary Swedish Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum in New York in 1927 thanks to Sweden's successful participation at the Paris exhibition in 1925 which had great commercial importance for Swedish decorative arts in America. It’s clear that he contributed to a large extent to the international breakthrough of Swedish design. His professional activity coincides with a period characterized by changes and improvements in Swedish society as a whole and particularly in Swedish industrial art. His furniture had aesthetic expressions that were well in accordance with their time but simultaneously very distant from the socially oriented ideas characterizing the activities of Svenska Slöjdföreningen. Consequently critics representing the dominating, socially engaged spirit, rejected the more exclusive industrial art of the 1920s through the 1940s.

For more than ten years, from October 1927, Axel Einar Hjorth acted as the chief designer/architect at Nordiska Kompaniet. During the years between the First and Second World War Nordiska Kompaniet was one of the most important Swedish furniture manufacturers and above all, the most exclusive one. Nordiska Kompaniet and Hjorth took part in most of the important national as well as international exhibitions of that time. Among these are the Barcelona exhibition (1929), the Stockholm exhibition (1930), the exhibition at the Dorland House in London (1931) and the world exhibitions in Chicago (1933), in Brussels (1935) and Paris (1937). In addition to this, Axel Einar Hjorth was the organizer and curator of exhibitions at the department store itself on a yearly base.

At the international exhibition in Barcelona (May 1929 – January 1930), Axel Einar Hjorth was the architect and designer of the 300 m² hall for Nordiska Kompaniet or NK and for the administrative premises of Sweden. The booth of Nordiska Kompaniet, inclusive floor and walls, were prepared and produced in Sweden, under Hjorth’s supervision. The Caesar furniture series that premiered in November 1928 at the Nordiska Kompaniet’s exhibition, was here presented: it’s handcrafted ornamentation shows urns and stylised leafs similar to the Caesar library table. Historically however, the Swedish participation in Barcelona was overshadowed due to the predominant German pavilion of the architect and furniture designer Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969).

With the break through of Modernism in Sweden, Axel Einar Hjorth was one of the most important designers at the Stockholm exhibition in 1930. His pieces of furniture for Nordiska Kompaniet were characterized by high quality craftsmanship and advanced material combinations. The furniture was manufactured for high class clientele with modern demands but sharply contrasted with the social program that in many ways was typical for the exhibition.

As the chief architect at Nordiska Kompaniet Hjorth received commissions to create interiors although the company had a separate department for this purpose. Some of the most striking commissions were Hjorth’s designs for the Shah of Persia’s railway trains and the Nordiska Kompaniet's Paris shop. He left Nordiska Kompaniet in order to start his own business in February 1938.

From 1938 on, Axel Einar Hjorth carried on working, alternating between running a shop and managing an architect office. But at the end of the 1940s he was financially forced to seek employment again, this time as chief designer at Aski, a company producing simple office furniture and interiors. Along with his work at Aski he carried on his architect office - in a modest way - up to the mid 1950s. In June 1959 he passed away after a sudden illness.

This Caesar library table has a top in walnut, carved gilt frame with double attached fluted legs and feet with carved decoration of acanthus leafs.

16 March 1929

Walnut, gilt wood

Brass label on the table reverse: A B NORDISKA KOMPANIET R 33235 – 16 3 29

H. 73 cm,  W. 175 cm, D. 75 cm

Sources: Björk, C., Ekström, T. & Ericson, E.  (2009), Axel Einar Hjorth: möbelarkitekt, Stockholm: Signum, p. 59-76; http://www.stockholmmodern.se/research/a-e-hjorth-archive-9400195 [website] (consulted 13 December 2013).

Guglielmo Bechi was an Italian archaeologist, architect, teacher and theorist. He lived and worked mainly in Naples. From 1851 until his death shortly after he directed the excavations of Pompeii.

After completing his studies (1805), he later settled in the then capital of the Kingdom of Naples, where he was appointed ufficiale dello Stato Maggiore (officer of the General Staff) (1815). Recommended by the architect and decorator Antonio Niccolini (1772-1850) he became secretary of the Regio Istituto per le Belli Arti (Royal Institute for Fine Arts) (22.03.1822). His inauguration speech was published that same year. His function in the art history department gave him great opportunities, such as to take care of the collections of the Real Museo Borbonico (1824-1843).

Despite his buzzy academic activities, Bechi also successfully dedicated himself to architectural design, in such way that the Duca di San Teodoro appointed him to design an imposing palazzo on the Riviera di Chiaia (1826), a commission he completed cum laude. Admiral and politcian Ferdinando Acton hired him for the finalisation of his villa at the Italian riviera, currently a museum, started by Pietro Valente (1796-1859), but with whom the owner ended up having a bad relationship. Guglielmo Bechi also co-operated in the realisation and decoration of the interiors of the palazzo Ruffo della Scaletta (March 1832 - April 1835) and the Villa Doria d'Angri in Naples (Posillipo).

The magnificent Villa Doria D'Angri at the beginning of Via Posillipo, with a stunning view overlooking the Posillipo bay, belonged since 1592 to the Doria family. In 1592 Vittoria Carafa donated to Isabella della Tolfa, wife of Marcantonio Doria di Angri (d’Angri), a vast estate with a masseria nora being a Posillipo masseria. The initial mansion was rebuild and extended several times. In particular between 1774 and 1782, when a new building was constructed. The Prince of Angri and Duke of Eboli, instructed the most radical rebuilding under the supervision of leading architect Bartolomeo Grasso (1775-ca.1860) and the co-architects Guglielmo Bechi, Luigi Gaddi and Antonio Francesconi (1806-1882), author of the curious octagonal Chinese pagoda. The villa, inspired by the Palladian villas, was commissioned by its owner as a symbol of his prestige and his aspirations as a cultured and refined man. This project needed, from the start in 1831 until the finishing in 1836, the cooperation of a great and excellent team of artists, decorators and craftsmen. The Villa Doria d’Angri - complete with Pompeian atrium and fountains - became one of the most important and interesting neoclassical villas in the area of Posillipo. Its construction was designed to become one with the location on which it was built for a perfect integration between architecture and nature. The most scenic part of the villa were its side terraces, real hanging gardens with water features and fountains. The interior spaces, according to the fashion of the period, were partly frescoed with Pompeian style motifs.

After the death of the Prince, the family decided to abandon the villa which in 1857 was sold to an English noblewoman. It became the headquarters of the Istituto Santa Dorotea and today it is one of the offices of the Univesità Parthenope which houses a prestigious Museo Navale of great historical interest, with a collection of about 160 models of ships and educational nautical instruments, the oldest of which date back to 1920, the year of the foundation of the Institute.

Empire ‘ottoman’ or ‘paté’

Guglielmo Bechi designed for the Villa Doria d’Angri an interior with Pompeian motifs and also carried on this neoclassical style in mirrors, tiles, plasterwork, furniture, etc. A perfect example is this extraordinary Italian Empire ‘otoman’ or ‘paté’ executed in a mix of fustic and amaranth. De positioning of the four seats makes it possible to have a conversation in a comfortable way or to admire for example art. The seat border is decorated with the Doria family escutcheon (a crowned eagle) and garlands. The eight neoclassical designed feet are supported at the lower part by little bare feet and the support itself is decorated with masks. The design is in analogy with the inner frame of the mantle piece in the Villa’s Galleria, most likely the room where the ottoman/paté was situated. The furniture maker was Pietro Viola, who also realised the furniture for the Palazzo Reale and the Villa Floridiana.

Created between 1831-1836

Fustic, amaranth and (new) green velvet upholstering

H. 79 cm, W. 160cm, D. 108 cm

Provenance: Villa Doria d’Angri, via Petrarca 80, Posillipo area, Naples (Italy)

Litterature: Colle, E., Il mobile Impero in Italia. Arredi e decorazioni d’interne dal 1800 al 1843, Milano: Ecclecta, 1998, p. 32-33.

Marcel-Louis Baugniet is considered to be one of the most important Belgian avant-garde artists He was a painter, he made collages and designed decors, posters, carpets, advertising illustrations, ceramics and furniture.

Baugniet studied at the Academy of Brussels, where Paul Delvaux (1897-1974) and René Magritte (1898-1967) were his fellow students. He was a student under the symblist painter Jean Delville (1867-1953). In Paris he met a.o. Ossip Zadkine (1890-1967) and Fernand Léger (1881-1955). In 1922 he returned to Brussels, where he became friends with Felix De Boeck (1898-1995) and Victor Servranckx (1897-1965).

In Baugniet’s work, the influence of Bauhaus and De Stijl is visible. He was also familiar with the work of Le Corbusier (1887-1965), Victor Vasarely (1906-1997) and his wife Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979), and Henry Van de Velde (1863-1957). He evolved from figurative art towards Contructivsm.

In 1922 he joined 7Arts. He became a member of the art society L’Assaut and participated in their exhibitions. He took part in the exhibitions of La Lanterne Sourde in 1923. He co-operated for the magazine L’Effort moderne in Paris en 1924-1925 et plus tard aux magazines L’Art vivant et Opbouwen. He exhibited at the Exposition internationale des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 1925.

In 1923 he married the dancer Marguerite Acarin (1904-1999), for whom he invented her stage name Akarova. He designed her stage costumes. Baugniet and Akarova soon ended their marriage in 1928, but they always remained friends and she continued to work sporadically with him for sets and costumes of her shows.

Baugniet also made illustrations for the album Déchirures of the poet R. Vivier and Dosages of L. François in 1929. He created music sheets edited by the music publishers F. Lauwerijns and A. Isaÿe. After 1945 he concentrated almost exclusively on collages and furniture designs. He founded the Maison de décoration Baugniet & C° in Brussels where he sold his creations.

In the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Liège, a major Baugniet exhibition was held in 2001.

Pair of art déco low back ‘gondole’ chairs

Period 1920s-1930s

Original upholstering

Museums: Brussels, Ostend, Elsene, Verviers, Amsterdam, Jerusalem and Lodtz.

Source: Pas, W. & G. (vol. 1) (2000), ARTO 2000 Biografisch Lexicon Plastische Kunst in België. Schilders Beeldhouwers Grafici 1830-2000, Antwerpen: De Gulden Roos, p. 39.

The Werkhuizen /Maison Franck company in Antwerp had three activities:

1) Furniture production   

2) Interior decoration

3) Antiques business

The first Werkhuizen/Maison Franck business ran by Mr and Mrs Franck, was located in the Kuipersstraat in Antwerp and expanded from a modest wallpaper shop to a flourishing decorator’s enterprise.

Their son Frans Franck (1872-1932), a talented draughtsman, was sent to Paris as an apprentice of an (unknown) ébéniste. This training maid him sensible to the new currents in English decorative arts and the work of the famous artist, writer and designer William Morris (1834-1896); the writer, poet, critic and painter John Ruskin (1819-1900); the artist and book illustrator Walter Crane (1845-1915). Back in Belgium, father Franck involved Frans and his brother Charles (1870-1935) in the decoration of the halls for Antwerp’s Second World Exhibition in 1894 with a large number of vellum sheets. They accomplished this assignment with great accuracy and speed, reason enough for their father to leave the management of the Werkhuizen/Maison Franck company in their hands: Charles was put in charge of management and administration, Frans of the decorative side of the business. The company flourished and during the Interbellum she employed circa 150 craftsman such as upholsterers, gilders, painters, sculptors and various specialists.

But both brothers also became very important cultural promoters of the Antwerp art scene at the start of the 20th century. They wanted to attract new artistic currents to Antwerp and founded The Chapel which quickly evolved into the new artistic society Kunst van Heden – Art Contemporain. They promoted young artists such as the modernist and pre-expressionist sculptor and painter Rik Wouters (1882-1916); the expressionist sculptor and painter Constant Permeke (1886-1952); the major figure in the Belgian avant-garde of the late nineteenth century and important precursor to the development of Expressionism in the early twentieth James Ensor (1860-1949); and the avant-garde painter Floris Jespers (1889-1965) with his mix of styles (Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism) and his brother Oscar Jespers (1887-1970), an important modernist sculptor. Kunst van Heden invited many members of the international art scene, for example Chagall, Van Gogh, Klee and Kandinsky. Frans was an art collector himself and being the first and enthusiast promoter of Ensor, he had work of him in his private collection. In contrast to his artistic commitment, Frans Franck’s international and avant-garde taste was never modernist. He didn’t design abstract forms, he didn’t use contrasting colours and had no interest in mass production of cheep furniture. Frans died in 1932 after an unfortunate fall while he was taking a family photograph at the Belgian coast.

Franck’s son Francis and his business associate Paul Pieters came in charge of the company on 1 June 1932. Under Francis’ charismatic and creative management the Franck business continued to flourish. In 1962, two years before his death, Werkhuizen/Maison Franck had ceased to exist, but Maison Décor, a new and smaller company had been set up by one of Francis assistants, Frans Lemmens. He continued to furnish interiors in the Maison Franck tradition.

The Werkhuizen/Maison Franck’s furniture trademark was without any doubt tortoiseshell. The use of tortoiseshell veneer for furniture in Antwerp went back to the first half of the 17th century. Antwerp was already known as the production and export centre of tortoise-veneered cabinets. Since Frans Franck was also an antiques dealer, buying and selling Antwerp cabinets of the city’s Golden Age must have inspired his 20th century designs using the tortoiseshell veneer techniques and some stylistic features. The effect of red tortoiseshell was obtained by fixing the transparent tortoiseshell veneers onto a painted red background with glue that was coloured with vermilion powder. Yellow tortoiseshell was obtained by gluing the transparent veneers onto a gold leaf background. Each model was produced in a limited edition of twelve pieces: six pieces in yellow tortoiseshell and six pieces in red tortoiseshell and the model was registered Sans Garantie Du Gouvernement (S.G.D.G.) which means ‘patented without state guarantee. In common with Art Deco designs, inspiration was also found in French or English classicist furniture. The book by G.M. Ellwood with English 18th century designs – such as models by Thomas Sheraton - that Franck owned must also have been a source of inspiration: it shows some drawings of Sheraton-furniture legs decorated with carved tassels (floches) and a demi-lune side table on square tapering legs completely veneered in tortoiseshell. The creative Franck made this floche motif and tortoiseshell technique characteristic for his designs. Every floche was carved and chiselled separately by hand. In combination with tortoiseshell this kind of Franck furniture was very expensive without being really profitable, but it became his trademark. An other typical Franck feature was the use of Chinese lacquerer panels, for example for cabinet doors. Thanks to their brother Louis Franck -  a Belgian Minister of State –  who had good contacts with the colonies and China, Franck imported - at first old - Coromandel lacquer panels. When the demand for lacquerer increased, new ones were made locally. The Franck tortoiseshell Art Deco furniture is usually quite different from the pieces he made in the international Art Deco style: Franck travelled frequently to Paris and he owned Croquis de Ruhlmann, the book with sketches by the famous Parisian furniture and interior designer Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann (1879-1933). Besides the luxury tortoiseshell and lacquerer furniture, Franck designed and produced a considerable variety of chairs, tables, cabinets, etc. in oak and walnut in an eclectic historicizing style combining for example 17th and 18th century design elements. Sometimes the historicist designs remained close to the original style, but they were provided with a new function. For example a neo-classical cabinet that originally had drawers and a sliding top inspired Franck for a liquor cabinet. Franck adapted constantly his designs instead of sticking to a limited number of standard models. Custom-designed creations were the rule at a time when ideas of mass production and standardisation were taking hold.

Werkhuizen/Maison Franck wasn’t only involved in furnishing a house, it also acted as an interior designer company with Frans’ own creations or with pieces sold in their antiques business. The interior decoration business was comprehensive and was involved in every detail of a project : carpentry, stairs, windows, doors, flooring, lighting, wallpaper, curtains, upholstery, etcetera.

When the company that had taken over Werkhuizen/Maison Franck in 1965 was liquidated, the remains of the Maison Franck archives were sold in 1998 through the Antwerp auction house Amberes. These archives contained furniture construction drawings from ca. 1910 to 1950; a set of watercolour furniture and interior drawings; a register of the different tortoiseshell table designs from 1920 to 1935; an (incomplete) ledger of 14 books with sales records of general antiques, furniture and objects between 1900 and 1961.

Coffee table top with rounded, slightly protruding corners. Four tapered legs with gilded acanthus leafs at the bottom, interconnected curved stretchers with a circular motif in the center.

1920s-1930s

Burr walnut

Not numbered

H. 50 cm, W. 80 cm, D. 52 cm

Sources: Müllendorf, E. (2002), ‘The furniture and interior design of Maison Franck of Antwerp (1900-1962) in Furniture History The Journal of The Furniture History Society, (no 38), p. 150-165; Exhibition catalogue Art Deco Belgique 1920-1940, Musée Ixelles 06.10 - 18.12.1988, p. 186-188.

Émile Bernaux was decorator, designer en sculptor in wood, and began to produce from 1909 on. He created numerous furniture ensembles. Bernaux worked with oak, mahogany, sometimes gilded wood and often, as from 1923 on, with the exotic May-dou wood.

He was a professor at the École des Arts décoratifs in Paris from 1904 to 1921 and teached anatomy. He exhibited from 1911 to 1929 on a regular basis at the Artistes Décorateurs, but also took part in exhibitions of the Salon des Artistes Français, the Nationale des Beaux-Arts and the Salon d'Automne.

Bernaux was awarded with a diplôme d'honneur (honorary diploma) at the Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes in 1925. A picture of the Bernaux stand shows a furniture ensemble created by different artists. The stand itself was created by architect Alfred Levard (1879-1953), the furniture by Émile Bernaux, the chandelier by Adalbert George Szabo (1877-1961), the embroidery by Guilly after Lucien Levy-Dhurmer (1865-1953), the carpet by Coupe, the sculpture by Felix Desruelles (1865-1943) and Oury, and the vase by Jean Mayodon (1893-1967).

France

Ca. 1930

Cabinet with one large door and richly decorated with asymmetrical geometric motifs

Type of wood: burl Thuja plicata. The Thuja (giant tree of life and the provincial tree of British Columbia) native to western North America and also known as Western Red Cedar to indicate it is not a true cedar (Cedrus), belongs to the cypress family (Cupressaceae). Burl Thuya wood is very compact and shows vivid and wild patterns.

H. 192,50 cm, W. 97 cm, D. 50 cm

Sources: Bénézit, E. (vol. 2) (1999), Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays par un groupe d’écrivains spécialistes français et étrangers, Paris: Éditions Gründ, p. 185; Kjellberg, P. (2011), Art Deco Les maîtres du mobilier - Le décor des paquebots, Paris, Les Éditions de l'Amateur, 280 p.; Rapin, H. (ed.), Art Deco Design and Ornament, p. 1-2; Testard, M. (1912),‘Émile Bernaux’ in L’art décoratif, juillet/décembre 1912, jg. 14, 2de semester, deel 28, p. 377-386; website .

Sweden

Circa 1930

Jacaranda wood and mahogany. The sculpted supports are decorated with classicized marquetry.       

H. 76 cm, B./L. 158 cm, D./P. 80 cm

 

Frits Henningsen was a famous Danish furniture designer and cabinet maker who achieved high standards of quality with exclusively handmade pieces.

He was both the proprietor of a furniture-making workshop with a team of cabinetmakers in central Copenhagen as well as the designer of his own products. An active member of the Cabinetmakers Guild from 1927, he was admired by his fellow colleagues for the high quality of his craftsmanship. Many of his pieces were crafted in exotic woods such as rosewood and mahogany. All his furniture is handmade in line with traditional, labour-intensive methods from the 19th century. His pieces are noted for their elegance, above all for the soft curves in the arms of his chairs and sofas, demonstrating his traditional approach aiming to combine style and comfort.

In 1942, Henningsen distanced himself from the younger designers of the day who increasingly used straight lines in their work, believing furniture design needed to maintain curvature which contributed to a homely look.

Box sofa

1940's - 1950's

Mahogany, leather, brass

H. 75 cm, W. 200 cm, D. 76 cm

Source: Hansen, P. H. & Petersen, K. (2007), Moderne dansk møbeldesign: tendenser, hammerslag og historie, Copenhagen: Gyldendal, p. 42.

1920s-1930s

Oak and leather

Pair of oak chairs decorated with designs inspired by the spirit of classic Antiquity such as acanthus leaves, Greek geometric and linear patterns. The seat consists of the original interlaced leather straps.

H. 75 cm, seat H. 47,50 cm, W. 58 cm, D. 60 cm

The Chambon company started in the 19th century with Alban Chambon (1847-1928), an in Paris born multi-talented artist. Trained as a drawer and sculptor, he began his career as a journeyman decorator in Paris, but moved in 1868 to Brussels at the age of twenty. He acquired name and fame in Europe as as a creator of Oriental-style theatre. In Belgium he enjoyed the reputation as the architect of Leopold II and some major figures of industry and finance. He was appreciated for various projects such as the Kursaal d’Ostende – called le palais des mille et une nuits (the palace of the Arabian nights) –, the banqueting rooms of the Hotel Métropole – a mirror of society – , the Caisse d'Epargne and La Bourse in Brussels. The in 1880 founded Ateliers Chambon, located in Alban’s own house in the rue de Livourne in Brussels, were so successful that in no time they had to be expanded. The Ateliers Chambon had various specialised studios for making of cabinets, decoration, chiselling, etcetera. His three sons Gaston (born in 1884), Fernand (born in 1876) and Alfred (born in 1884) were all involved with furniture design and manufacture, but Alfred was the only one to show at the Exposition universelle (Universal Exhibition) held in Paris in 1925. He was known as the most innovative force in the family, producing his high quality modern designs through the company he founded in 1925 with his father Alban, Anciens Etablissements Alban Chambon.

The wooden top and support are discretely decorated with bronze; supports ending in bronze feet.

Diam. top 55,50 cm

Source: Exhibition catalogue Art Deco Belgique 1920-1940, Musée Ixelles from 06.10 until 18.12.1988, p. 186-188.

Material: burl wood, bronze, green silk fabric, brass castors

Screen: H. 105 cm, W. 76,50 cm; W. base 35 cm

Resting armchair with a trapezoidal backrest, featuring a visible structure in chromed metal forming the front mounts and the base. Dark brown leather upholstery

H. back rest 75 cm; H. seat 38 cm, W. 62 cm, D. 76 cm

Marble

H. 81,50 cm, Diam. urn 38 cm

Classicized patinated bronze amphora-shaped urn decorated with the Greek anthemion ornament and a medallion with the portret of P. v. Salis 

Germany

1916

Patinated bronze

Sitter's name P. v. Salis and date 1916 on the base

H. 104 cm; base: W. 32 cm, D. 28 cm

Dark patinated and ormulu bronze, Giallo di Siena marble

Total H. 37 cm; Base: W. 15, 50 cm, D. 15,50 cm

Mahogany gondola shaped office chair with upholstery in black leather lined with a spiked border. The armrests are ending in a carved lion’s head.

Mahogany, black leather upholstery (new), spikes

H. 85 cm back; Seat H. 46 cm, W. 58 cm, D. 50 cm

This wine cooler has a hinged rectangular top with a carved oak-leaf handle above four radiating sections and a boldly carved lotus border. The cooling section is concave on each side with a smaller lotus apron and a lead-lined interior. It rests on scrolled feet concealing brass castors.

Pollarded oak

H. 70 cm, W. 94 cm, L. 64 cm

Patricia Vert marble breakfront top supported by four monumental lion monopodia. In the back two pilasters and a mirror.

Mahogany and Patricia Vert marble

H. 100 cm, W. 290 cm, D. 95 cm

Empire period

France

Burl wood and amaranth, marble, bronze

H. 75 cm, Diam. 97 cm

Jean-Baptiste-Claude Sené came from a family of menuisiers and ébénistes, becoming a maître ébéniste himself at the age of twenty-one (1769). One of the regular suppliers to Louis XVI’s Garde-Meuble, Sené is particularly famed for a bed he created for Marie-Antoinette, which was installed in the royal château at Fontainebleau in 1787. Thanks to his employment as an administrator for the Directoire government he was able to continue producing furniture, unlike many of his colleagues, who went bankrupt.

The open back is decorated with trelliswork and the front legs, which resemble the hind legs of a deer, terminate in a cloven hoof. ‘Directoire’ describes the style of decoration and design prevailing in France during the period of government known as the Directory, roughly between 1795 and 1799. Directoire art incorporated a wide range of symbols and motifs drawn both from Antiquity and from the Revolution itself. The klismos chair, a Greek invention, was designed in Antiquity for a more natural and stable posture. The rearwards curving back legs sweep upwards to support a broad concave back-rest that supports the body.

Ca.1800

Mahogany

H. 93 cm

Source: Ledoux-Lebard, D., p. 577-580

Rosewood, walnut, red leather

H. back 95 cm, H. seat 47 cm, W. 58 cm, D. 50 cm

1920s-1930s              

Patinated bronze

Signed on base Th. Moreau

Foundry name Cie des Bronzes cire perdue Bruxelles

H. 41 cm, Diam. base 12  cm

A pair of candlesticks both with a classical female figure with offerings surmounted by ormolu bronze leaves and mounted on a circular base made of white and beige marble, decorated with ormolu bronze chains.

Patinated and ormolu bronze, marble

H. 29,50 cm, Diam. base 8,50 cm

The cabinet-maker Louis-François-Laurent Puteaux developed a new and idiosyncratic style based on the use of native burlwood. His choice of wood was partly a consequence of Bonaparte’s Continental System, which in 1806 brought into effect a wholesale embargo on trade with Britain that lasted until 1814. In 1812 Puteaux went to Paris in hopes of securing the patronage of the Comte de Montesquiou and the royal court for his luxurious furniture. At the time he met with little success, but his participation in the Exposition de produits de l’industrie française in 1819, which gained him an honourable mention, and another exhibition in 1823, for which he was awarded a bronze medal in recognition of the extraordinary quality of his marquetry, brought him the necessary renown. He subsequently supplied the Garde-Meuble of Louis XVIII(1755-1825) with several pieces of furniture decorated with the emblems of France.

Puteaux referred to himself as an artiste-mécanicien – an artist-technician. His pieces were described at the time as ‘exceptional furniture and of an eminent beauty’ which ‘appear most elegant and most various through the choice of woods and combination of natural effects’. In 1830, however, he abandoned the production of luxury pieces to concentrate on a more industrial type of furniture manufacture and on the development of affordable housing (village of Batignolles) to help relieve the congestion of Paris. 

The circular table top, the central support and the base are all made of various native burl woods.  Floral and geometric designs, palmettes and motifs depicting architectural implements are finely worked in marquetry.

Ca.1825

H. 71 cm, Dia. 80,5 cm

Museum: Paris (Musée Carnavalet)

Source: Ledoux-Lebard, D., p. 533-534

The white, gray veined marble top with shaving bowl rests on three columns and a full base with concave curved sides, decorated with gilded bronze ornaments.

Burl elm

Charles X period

H. 82 cm, Diam. 43 cm

Guéridon in burlwood with marble top. The supports, which narrow from the base upwards, are mounted in gilt bronze whose design alludes to the base and capital of a classical column. The base of the guéridon is in the form of a solid triangle with concave sides.

H. 76 cm, Dia. 113 cm

Guéridon in contrasting light and dark woods: Amboinaburlwood with mouldings and narrow ebonized wood and amaranth bands that emphasize the table’s structure. The table edge is ornamented with floral motifs, the pyramidal support with rams’ heads and palmettes, all in gilt bronze.

H. 98 cm, Dia. 76 cm

François-Honoré-Georges Jacob, better known as Jacob-Desmalter (1770-1841), ran one of the most prosperous and influential furniture workshops in Paris from 1796 to 1825. He was the son of the master chair-maker Georges Jacob (1739-1814), who worked in the Louis XVI and Directoire styles and carried out many royal commissions. In 1796 Georges Jacob retired and Jacob-Desmalter took over the family workshop in the rue Meslée in partnership with his older brother Georges (1768-1803), concentrating on the production of veneered case-pieces (ébénisterie) and turned and carved seat furniture (menuiserie). When his brother died just a few years later, Jacob-Desmalter’s father returned to the company, which soon became one of the largest furniture workshops in Paris.

Most of the furniture produced by Jacob-Desmalter et Cie was in the Empire style, with mahogany veneers and gilt-bronze mounts. The design of seat furniture was inspired by chairs and thrones of Antiquity, recognizable in details from bas-reliefs and Greek vases, Jacob-Desmalter became a principal supplier of furniture to the Emperor and he also received orders from Pauline Borghese, Napoleon’s sister in Rome, and the Empresses Joséphine and Marie Louise, for whom he produced numerous pieces for the châteaux of Malmaison and Compiègne, the Tuileries Palace, and other imperial residences. The company was greatly dependent on orders from Napoleon and in 1813, with imperial debts mounting as the Napoleonic Empire destabilized, the firm went bankrupt. Jacob-Desmalter managed to resurrect the company, however, and after 1815 commissions picked up again. He continued to run the company until his son, Georges-Alphonse, succeeded him in 1825. Jacob-Desmalter’s list of clients reflects the turbulent spirit of the times: the royal family, the leaders of the French Revolution, the Directoire, the Napoleonic Empire and the Restoration.

The sideboard has a white marble top, with two plain supports at the back and two richly sculpted monopodia at the front, resting on a rectangular base. A monopodium is a decorative support formed from the head and leg of an animal, usually a lion, as in this case. Roman prototypes (1st century BCE) have been found at Pompeii, for example. Central drawer beneath the top.

1813-1825

Mahogany and white marble

+ IACOB stamped on right and left beneath the top

H. 98 cm, W. 161 cm, D. 43 cm

Sources: Gloag, J.,p. 459, 616; Ledoux-Lebard, D.,p. 267-372

This console has a rectangular top in Turquin Bleu marble resting on a band with marquetry showing a meander frieze, palmettes and floral designs. Both supports are sculpted in an elegant swan’s head and bundles of oak leaves resting on a rectilinear base also foreseen of marquetry. The backside shows very refined marquetry: in the middle an urn with palmettes carried by two swans, symbol of fidelity.

H. 95 cm, W. 119 cm, D. 49 cm

Provenance: Musée Marmottan Monet - Paris

H. 130 cm, Dia. 60 cm 

This bookcase in clouded mahogany has three vertical divisions. The architrave and four pilaster-like stiles are embellished with classically-inspired gilt bronze ornaments, including griffins, palmettes, garlands, floral motifs, stars, birds and amphorae. Above the architrave, correspondent to each stile, are four classical gilt bronze female busts. The base is supported on four gilt bronze lion’s claw feet. The large number of shelves allows the bookcase to be easily adapted.

H. 306 cm, W. 282 cm, D. 43 cm

Ca.1900

Sculpted pinewood (with birds, hearts) and brown embossed leather.

H. 39 cm, Diam. 36 cm

The candelabra have six curved arms terminating in candle holders. In the centre is a ‘burning flame’. The fluted shaft rises from acanthus leaves. Each candelabrum is supported on three boldly carved lion paws on a triangular marble base. The top of the shaft is decorated with three subtly elaborated masks.

Patinated and gilt bronze

H. 90 cm

Carlo Rizzarda was famed for his work in wrought iron – balustrades, gates, doors, fences, lamps, chandeliers and furniture. Feltre, his birthplace, is home to the Galleria d’Arte Moderna Carlo Rizzarda, a museum of decorative arts with a unique collection of early-20th-century wrought ironwork. The museum, which opened in 1938, contains an extensive collection of works acquired by Rizzarda to furnish his house in Milan, as well as wrought iron objects made by Rizzarda himself between 1910 and 1930.

In 1905 Rizzarda received a scholarship that allowed him to train in wrought ironwork in Milan, whereAlessandro Mazzucotelli, a master craftsman specializing in wrought ironwork in the Art Nouveau style, showed him the material’s rich artistic potential. In 1910, following the Exposition universelle de Bruxelles, Rizzarda started his own business.The first time he exhibited his work, at the first Mostra internazionale delle arti decorative, heldin Monza in 1923, he achieved great success with objects in a neo-classical and neo-Baroque style as well as pieces in a more rustic and primitive idiom. He went on to work with the leading architects of the time.In 1924 he took part in the Venice Biennale and in 1925 he won the third prize in the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.At the 1927 Mostra Internazionale di arte decorativa in Monza, however, the flamboyant Rizzarda style began to be more critically assessed. Tastes and requirements were changing and the need for rationality and functionality ultimately led to a decline in the popularity of Rizzarda's work in wrought iron.

1920s

H. ca. 90 cm

Museum: Feltre

Source: website of the Galleria d'Arte Moderna ‘Carlo Rizzarda’

This table decoration is a Fiedler challenge trophy in cast zinc with two cut glass inserts. The centre part is decorated with two sculpted lion heads and surmounted by a striding panther.

The centre part carries the inscription:

Wander - Preis

Gau II A

THÜRINGEN

GEWIDMET

v W FIEDLER, EISENACH

27 · 2 · 1910

errungen von Alexander Herhold

(Challenge Trophy Gau II A Thuringia dedicated to W Fiedler, Eisenach 27.2.1910 won by Alexander Herhold)

Gau IIA refers to the Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club Gau IIa Thüringen.

H. 40 cm, W. 72 cm, D. 30 cm

The library case has a pedimented central section that projects in front of the side sections. The central and side sections have adjustable shelves and four glazed doors. The lower part of the case has four solid doors.

H. 264 cm, W. 252 cm, D. 51 cm

D. upper shelves on the left and right: 24 cm; D. lower shelves 34.5 cm

D. upper shelves in the centre: 30.5 cm; D. lower shelves 41.5 cm