Haughty and luxurious Office-Cabinet architectural form with two superimposed bodies inspired by neo-Renaissance in blackened ebonized wood and marquetry called Boulle in engraved brass with abundant interlacing patterns, floral foliage scrolls animated by birds and inhabited by unusual animal figures (shrews, greedy reptiles). Resting on a tapered rudenté base with a noticeably serpentine spacer, ennobled in the upper part with fine detached Corinthian columns, it is topped with two plumed cushioning vases festooned with spring flowers. Set in the broken pediment forming a crown, centered on a small aedicule, a bust in the round of Flora enlivens the verticality and measured elegance of this unique piece of furniture.
Delicately modeled, the radiant effigy of the goddess preludes to the Spring seems to reign, smiling, over this two-body furniture particularly elaborate. It is structurallyt composed:
-of an office forming a secretary with a double-curved flap opening along the belt with a large drawer. Triggered by a blade mechanism, the main shutter reveals an ebonized interior housing a large writing tray covered in gilded fawn morocco with small irons as well as a paper clip locker occupying the entire width of the desk; the latter surmounted by a row of three small drawers set with gilded brass strips.
-of a upper part forming Showcase ou Library. Set slightly back, it opens with two glazed doors on a dark interior with original ochre red velvet and fitted with two adjustable shelves with edge trimmed on an ebonized background with inlaid brass strips.
The two bodies are articulated around a step punctuated at the corners by projections simulating stylobates. Resting on an overhanging shelf, the latter houses two drawers with button-shaped grips.
Deliberately enhancing its architectural structure, an adornment of chiseled and gilded bronzes - pearl, frieze of flowered ovates, ribboned leafy rushes, asparagus with bell-shaped bases, ingot molds or rings with acanthus motifs alternating with water leaves, acanthus rosettes, etc. - surrounds the slopes of the pediment with a supple design, underlines the cornice, borders the entablature and base, adorns the columns and base, sets, marries or even marks out the profile of this Office-Cabinet which reinterprets with virtuosity and subtlety forms and ornamental repertoire inherited from the French Renaissance Bellifontaine.
And, more particularly those from the collections (Second Book of Architecture, 1561; Damascene, 1545. Little Grotesques, 1562, Furniture, 1565) of Jacques Androuet of the Hoop (1515-1585) consulted between 1830-1860 with ardor by the singers of the Neo-Renaissance style such as the Parisian sculptors, ornamentalists and cabinetmakers Claude-Aimé Chenavard, Jean-Louis Benjamin Gros, Monbro Aîné, Victor Michel Cruchet (1815-1889) ..or even Michel Liènard (1810-1870) and the Grohé brothers, co-authors for theExhibition of Industrial Products from 1844 of a " Cabinet-Museum"(Oshorne House, Royal Collection) benchmark in this field.
At the sight of this piece of furniture, which is quite rare on the art market and stylistically datable to the 1860s, we are tempted to borrow our concluding elements from one of the prose writers of the second half of the XNUMXth century recounting the creations of Parisian high-end cabinetmaking:
« At first glance, it is charming, it is dazzling, it makes you dizzy, or to put it better, the intoxication of luxury (…). The whole era is there, palpable and graspable; the whole era with its frenzy, its immoderate taste for riches with grand flourishes and representations. (Andre Goyen, The Universal Exhibition", in: The Pantheon of Industry and Arts, January 1867, p.380).
Also, around the oval cartouche surrounding its flap, cornucopias unfold, stems of foliage with opulent blooms stretch out, ferns and twisted ivy spill out, mischievous shrews and greedy snakes invite themselves to the party. In the belt, perched birds frolic, seasoned.
Probably made for a special occasion - either for an international exhibition or to be offered to a high-ranking elegant lady - this Office-Cabinet of high quality of execution testifies to the undeniable know-how of Parisian cabinetmaking of the Second Empire. Originality of design, nobility of style and proportions, refined and learned decoration, such are the key words of this piece of furniture brilliantly combining practical amenities and pomp.
It is also related to the creations "artistic cabinetmaking" » due then to the famous Parisian Houses of Louis Gradé and Pelcot (1852-1867) or the brilliant and « versatile » Alphonse Giroux (1837-1867).
Cabinetmaking work from the second half of the 19th century in the style Neo-Renaissance. Napoleon III period, circa 1860. Not stamped. Bronze bust of Flora signed on the back: “ S. Cochi.et ».
To be compared with a Cabinet forming a writing desk in Boulle marquetry, France, 1870s reproduced in C.Payne, European Furniture of the 19th century, 1981, p.57 as well as another signed by Maison Giroux reproduced in: C.Payne, Paris, the quintessence of furniture in the 19th century, 2018, p. 369.
