19th Century Etagère Shelves Napoleone III Walnut Maple Black
Located in Prato, IT
France, second half of the 19th century Veneered, maple, thuja burl, ebony and ebonized walnut. Restored Dimensions: W71 x D39 x H135 cm.
Ebony, Walnut
$1,275Sale Price|40% Off
French Napolean Style Ebony Jewelry Chest /Seven Drawers
Located in Malibu, CA
Ebonized Napolean III period Mahogany petite dressing table for jewels & other small valuables. Six small drawers with decorative pulls and lined drawers which rests on a small t...
Bronze
Louis Napoleon Kingwood Marquetry and Ormoly Mounted Fold Top Console Game Table
Located in Germantown, MD
A Louis Napoleon Bonaparte ( Napoleon III) mid 19th-century Kingwood and various exotic species marquetry card table featuring gilt bronze ormolu mounts in the Louis XVI Style. This ...
Ormolu
$75,000Sale Price|21% Off
Mid-19th Century Napoleon III Gilt Bronze Mounted Boulle Style Cabinet & Mirror
By André-Charles Boulle
Located in Long Island City, NY
A mid-late 19th century monumental Napoleon III gilt bronze mounted ebony, red tortoiseshell and designed brass Boulle style cabinet and mirror Each Boulle style marquetry panel wit...
Brass, Bronze
$6,000Sale Price|20% Off
19th Century French Ebony and Boulle Bookcase/Vitrine
By François Linke
Located in Vancouver, British Columbia
A handsome bookcase or china cabinet made in France in the last half of the 19th century. The case is in ebonized wood (including the top), and is curved at each side. There are thre...
Wood
French 19th Century Louis XVI St. Ebony and Ormolu Center Table
Located in West Palm Beach, FL
An impressive French 19th century Louis XVI st. Napoleon III period ebony and ormolu center table.
Ormolu
19th century, Italian Fine Octagonal Sail Plan Center Table by Luigi and Angiolo
By Luigi and Angelo Falcini
Located in IT
19th century, Italian Fine Octagonal Sail Plan Center Table by Luigi and Angiolo Falcini This wood central table consists of a octagonal sail plan, octagonal in shape, finely inlaid...
Ebony
19th Century French Antiques Boulle Cabinet
By André-Charles Boulle
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A sensational hight quality french 19th century Napoleon third peroid ,ebony and bronze cabinet a hauteur d appui inlaid with brass ,marble top the boulle cabinet have an important...
Marble, Bronze
Mid 20th Century Maison Jansen Ebonized French Writing Desk With Mirror
Located in Elkton, MD
Maison Jansen ebonized writing desk of French origin from the mid-20th century. The composition features a central mirror above the writing surface framed by symmetrical drawer eleme...
Brass
$2,340 / set
Pair French Side Chairs
Located in Swadlincote, GB
Wonderful pair of French Napoleon 111 side chairs, with turned ebony legs, newly upholstered in linen fabric, upholstered in the traditional methods, with deep bullion fringing, supe...
Ebony
Antique Early 19th Century Dutch Colonial Calamander Desk
Located in Palm Beach, FL
Rare and important early 19th Century desk handcrafted in calamander wood featuring two organizers on the banded top with brass supports, nine banded drawers with English dovetailing...
Brass
19th Century Lacquered Small Cabinet
By André-Charles Boulle
Located in Paris, FR
Petite 19th-century armoire in ebony veneer, adorned with brass inlay decoration. It opens with two doors with panels of Chinese lacquer from the 17th century, featuring birds on fl...
Granite, Brass
Charles-Guillame Diehl and Jean Brandely Museum Quality Neo-Grec Torchères, 1870
By Charles-Guillaume Diehl
Located in Long Island City, NY, NY
Majestic and exemplary of the masterpieces created especially for the International Exhibitions, this significant and incredibly rare pair of Napoleon III-period torchères were creat...
Ormolu
$893Sale Price|61% Off
French Stucco Louis Philippe Mirror Imitation Wood and Gilding, circa 1870
Located in Labrit, Landes
Napoléon III Stucco mirror, Ebony imitation and gilt.
Mirror, Stucco
Under Napoleon III’s rule, Paris underwent a great rebuilding overseen by Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann, which created grand avenues and lavish landmarks like the Paris Opera. Antique Napoleon III–style furniture was flamboyant and eclectic. It was also known as Second Empire style since it followed and referenced the Empire style of his uncle Napoleon I.
Developing from 1852–70, Napoleon III furniture was plush and ornate, matching the fashion for masked balls and socializing in salons. It borrowed freely from earlier French styles including Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI as well as aesthetics from around the world, from antiquity to Asian art. As writer Gustave Claudin remarked in 1867, the country’s architects worked in “a style which one would be tempted to call neo-Greco-Gothico-Pompadour-Pompeian.”
Napoleon III chairs were completely covered with velvet and lined with tassels; pouf footstools invited people to put up their feet. Sofas were upholstered with tapestries, and beds were adorned with gilt bronze and theatrical canopies. The addition of conservatories to homes led to new indoor-outdoor furniture, while the spirit of hygiene promoted by Baron Haussmann inspired bright, floral motifs.
Although the most ostentatious designs were for the elite, as seen in the Napoleon III apartments preserved in the Louvre, where red velvet, gilding and chandeliers create a cacophony of luxury, these trends influenced homes across classes as manufacturing made design increasingly accessible. Papier-mâché furniture allowed for elaborate shapes that would have been difficult to carve in wood. The malleable material was painted with chinoiserie patterns and decorative designs. It was mass-produced by factories such as Jennens and Bettridge with varnishing and mother-of-pearl inlays creating an effect reminiscent of Asian lacquer. (Surfaces that had been “japanned” — a specialty of Jennens and Bettridge — were intended to resemble lacquer work that was created in East Asia.)
Find a collection of antique Napoleon III decorative objects, tables, seating and other furniture on 1stDibs.