Wall Console by Jacques-Emile Rulhmann

About the Item

It is a unique and exceptional piece by the most talented decorator of the 1930s. He designed this wall for the private mansion of a Bordeaux wine merchant. The 2 Saint-Gobain glasses are not original. The console was probably made in marble as well.

Creator:
Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann (Designer)
Dimensions:
Height: 98.43 in (250 cm)Width: 177.17 in (450 cm)Depth: 3.94 in (10 cm)
Style:
Art Deco (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques:
Marble
Place of Origin:
France
Period:
1930-1939
Date of Manufacture:
1935
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use. Minor losses. Minor structural damages. This wall need to be installed by a professional. The wall is made of 40 pieces 44x44cm with central square of 12x12cm 6 empty piece of 44x44cm 4 pieces for console arms 4 arms 51cm long from the wall 6 pieces 77x18cm 3 pieces 80x10cm.
Seller Location:
PARIS, FR
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU8281233051282
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Shop All Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann

Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann

Endeavoring to create exquisite work that would endure forever, designer Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann defined the grandeur of the French Art Deco movement of the 1920s. His luxurious storage cabinets, seating, other furniture and interiors garnered considerable popularity alongside the growth in post–World War I Paris’s population of newly wealthy residents.

The Paris-born Ruhlmann was the son of a decorating contractor, a business he took over in the early 1900s and expanded into furniture and interior design. But by the end of his career, he was best known for being a skilled ensemblier, a term for a designer who not only makes furniture and decorates spaces but rather personally crafts each and every piece required in the space, from doorknobs to sofas. This practice ensured that the space was harmonious and consistent with Ruhlmann’s vision, and it contributed to the lasting popularity of his designs.

Ruhlmann enjoyed the patronage of the newly affluent and was encouraged by the popularity of Art Deco. While the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau movements were early influences, he is renowned for the modernity of his Art Deco–era designs, which reflected the celebratory nature of the times, including an integration of opulent flourishes; luxurious materials like Macassar ebony, amboyna burl, ivory and precious metals; and skilled craftsmanship and construction techniques.

Renowned all over the world, Ruhlmann was commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to design a cabinet in 1925, embellishing its curved door with a sophisticated floral motif by way of an ornate marriage of wood and ivory veneer. Also in 1925, at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, arguably the exhibition that introduced Art Deco on an international level, his pavilion was the most popular.

By the time the economic depression of the 1930s materialized, Ruhlmann’s exorbitantly expensive designs were no longer viable. But the majesty and elegance of the ’20s remain an important part of design history, and Ruhlmann has been described as “perhaps its finest exponent.”

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