Joseph-Emmanuel Zwiener Furniture

For customers that require professional insured delivery we are proud to have teamed up with a nationwide professional delivery company that will assist with coordinating your delivery needs! They offer a reasonable flat-rate fee for delivery and set up to the ground floor of your home. They deliver to the vast majority of the lower 48 states. They offer a flat rate for most of our items with exclusions for the largest or most complex items such as breakfronts or crystal chandeliers or other items of greater complexity. For those items please ask for a shipping quote prior to purchase as these rates are different from our stated pricing. For those items please ask for a shipping quote prior to purchase. Most deliveries to the East Coast will be 295.00, to the mid-west and Southern mid-west 395.00. To the areas west of Kansas 495.00 and the farthest points to the West coast will be 595.00. Again, some areas we can't cover, however we can deliver to most of the lower 48 states so please inquire to be sure! Delivery times range from as fast as 1-4 weeks for the east coast to 5-9 weeks to the farthest areas of the west coast, sometimes longer and sometimes even shorter. If it is a time sensitive purchase, we may be able to accommodate you for a higher price. It is our goal to please each and every one of our customers with the highest standard of service possible. You must realize and accept that we are shipping antique, vintage and quality used furnishings to your home. We cannot control traffic, weather, and acts of God. There will be times when additional patience will be necessary. Carved distressed frame. Marble top. Mirrored back. 2 glass shelves. Doors and side panels have beveled glass. One door. Cloth wrapped bottom. Lighted. 48 1/2" H x 49 1/4" W x 17 3/8" D. Condition Chips to shelves. Paint loss. Scratches. Chips in marble top. Damage to mirrored back. Split in one leg. We recommend all lighting...

Magnificent curved display case in gilded wood with white marble top in Louis XVI style. This showcase opens with two front doors adorned with garlands of flowers as well as Wedgwood medallions...

A late 19th century French Bureau Plat in kingwood and amaranth parquetry with three drawers to one side with gilt bronze decoration all round; notable are the drawer handles modelled with Chinese heads; the two ends decorated with Apollo heads...

Distressed paint but structurally sound and tight, Vernis Martin vitrine with hand painted panels, bronze mounts and curved glass. Has working lockset & key. Three glass shelves all ...

19th century Louis XV style curio display table, mahogany with bronze mounts French Louis XV style elegant mahogany and bronze decorated display...

This is a stunning antique French wood and Vernis Martin vitrine cabinet, in the Louis XV manner, Circa 1880 in date, with exquisite hand painted decoration and exquisite ormolu moun...

Antique French Louis XV Marquetry Style Mahogany Brass Ormolu Mounted Bombe Leather Top Desk A unique French Louis XV style ornate ormolu gilt mounted figural desk. The desk has a...

A very fine 19th century Louis XVI style gilt bronze and gilt metal mounted rosewood vitrine cabinet with malachite tops, by Pierre E. Guerin (1843-1911), in the manner of François Linke (1855-1946). The slender single-glazed front door tri-level vitrine 'Meuble d'Appui' cabinet fitted with three sectional malachite veneer tops (later) and glazed beveled-glass panels on the sides, surmounted with gilt-bronze and gilt-metal ornamental mounts with playful Putti amongst vines and leaves, ribbons, musical instruments, flowers, torches, masks, wreaths and acanthus, all raised on six fluted and tapered legs with gilt-bronze ring fittings and sabots. The apron mounts with a polychromed Verde-green background. The mounts marked 'P.E. Guerin 527 and other numerals. The interior with two glass shelves and a recent green velvet paneling. Circa: New York, 1890-1900. The marks on the bronze of this cabinet are from Pierre E. Guerin (1843-1911), who established his New York foundry in 1864 providing mounts for renowned cabinet makers such as Leon Marcotte and Pottier and Stymus...

A fine French 19th-20th century kingwood and tulipwood marquetry and gilt-bronze mounted vitrine, in the manner of François Linke (1855-1946). The slender single door display cabinet with a red-velvet backing and bowed glass panels surmounted with acanthus and floral gilt-bronze mounts in the style of Léon Messagé (French, 1842-1901), the serpentine shaped front door with an ornate marquetry and ink colored panel depicting wreaths, ribbons and tied acantus leaves, all raised on four cabriolet legs ending with gilt-bronze paw-feet, Paris, circa 1900. Linke was born on 17 June 1855 in the small village of Pankraz, in what is now the Czech Republic. Records show that Linke served an apprenticeship with the master cabinet maker, Neumann, which he completed in 1877. Linke’s work book or Arbeits-Buch records that he was in Vienna from July 1872 to October 1873 at the time of the International Exhibition held there in 1873. He subsequently travelled to Prague, Budapest & Weimar before finally arriving in Paris in 1875. It is documented that he obtained employment with an unknown German cabinetmaker in Paris, and stylistic similarities, photographs and geographical proximity have led some to suggest that Emmanuel Zwiener was the most likely candidate. After a period back in his home town of Pankratz, he returned once and for all to Paris in 1877. In 1878 Paris hosted the third great International Exhibition, a remarkable success for a country ravaged by war only seven years earlier. It is known that the fledgling Linke workshops were active in the Faubourg St. Antoine as early as 1881, during this time he supplied furniture for other more established makers such as Jansen and Krieger. By 1889 another World’s Fair, as they were often referred to in America, took place in Paris. Monsieur Eiffel erected what has become the most iconic building in Paris for the exhibition and the atmosphere of wealth and confidence may well have encouraged Linke to think that he could contribute an important part to the next great exhibition. As early as 1892 this was decreed to take place at the end of the century, in an attempt to pre-empt Berlin from staging the last great show of the century. In 1892, Victor Champier (fr) one of the commissioners for the 1900 Paris Fair had appealed, “Create in the manner of the masters, do not copy what they have made”. It was an appeal against mere reproduction and Linke rose to this challenge in an unparalleled way with his unique display that was to include the Grand Bureau. Determined to outshine the competition at the Exhibition, Linke had set about creating the most ambitious pieces he could envisage, and more extravagant than had ever been displayed before. The items he exhibited marked a transition from the historicist interpretation of Louis XV and Louis XVI styles, an interpretation that was the mainstay of his nearest rivals, to something startlingly new and vital in its immediacy. [6] Together with Léon Messagé he developed a new style for the 1900 Exhibition that paid homage to the Louis XV rococo in the fluidity of its approach, but an approach fused with the lively flowing lines of the contemporary and progressive 'art nouveau'. The Art Journal reported in 1900 on Linke's stand: "The work of M. Linke ... was an example of what can be done by seeking inspiration amongst the classic examples of Louis XV and XVI without in any great sense copying these great works. M. Linke's work was original in the true sense of the word, and as such commended itself to the intelligent seeker after the really artistic things of the Exhibition. Wonderful talent was employed in producing the magnificent pieces of furniture displayed". Linke's stand would have appeared refreshingly new to contemporary onlookers, the traditional designs of the eighteenth century melting seamlessly into an exuberant naturalism. The 'Revue' described Linke's style as 'entièrement nouveaux' and noted "This opinion is universally accepted. Linke's stand is the biggest show in the history of art furniture in the year 1900". It is perhaps the most extraordinary and remarkable aspect of Linke’s personal history that he produced such expensive and luxurious furniture of exquisite quality for the 1900 exhibition without any commission or any potential buyer in mind. [9] At a time when other more established furniture businesses such as those of Beurdeley and Dasson were closing down, he made a huge investment in his stand and the furniture he supplied for it. Linke recognised that to move his business forward he needed to appeal to a more International clientele and the new emerging rich who were at this time amassing fortunes on an unprecedented scale. For this reason he gambled everything he had on his display for the 1900 exhibition. Had this not succeeded he would almost certainly have succumbed to bankruptcy. Linke’s notebook records visitors to his stand from England, Europe, the Americas, Egypt and Japan and including; the King of Sweden, three visits from the King of Belgium, Prince Radziwill, the Prince d’Arenberg, the Comte Alberic du Chastel, Miss Anna May Gould, the American heiress, distinguished furniture makers and the President of France Emile Loubet. This risky endeavour was a resounding success, and with his reputation established, La Maison Linke became the pre-eminent furniture house until outset of the Second World War. The technical brilliance of his work and the artistic change that it represented was never to be repeated. His showrooms expanded into prestigious premises in Paris, in the Place Vendôme as well as the Faubourg St. Antoine where his workshop had been established. He embarked on many important commissions in the years up to the outbreak of the First World War, making and designing furniture for leading international industrialists and bankers. After the 1914-1918 World War, Linke undertook the extraordinary commission to furnish the Ras al-Tin Palace in Alexandria for King Fuad of Egypt, possibly the largest single furniture commission ever conceived, eclipsing even Versailles. Linke flourished and remained active until the middle years of the 1930s and died in 1946 Léon Messagé (1842-1901) was a French sculptor, best known for his sculptural collaboration with François Linke for the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle. Messagé was also responsible for much of the design and creative work for Roux et Brunet...

A fine vitrine in the manner of Francois Linke Constructed in kingwood, with gilt bronze mounts, in the Louis XVI Transitional style; rising from bronze foliate sabots, with gent...

An exceptional quality mid-19th century, William IV Period, rosewood writing table having blind tooled leather inset to crossbanded top, over two drawers with original turned wooden knobs opposed by two false drawers, to extremely elegant shallow frieze, raised on reverse tapered, faceted, end supports with elegant carved scrolling feet and original recessed brass castors. Dating to the William IV period, which of course has a most distinctive style of its own sitting, despite not lasting very long between the late regency and victorian periods of english furniture making, this writing table has a lot of stand out features. Firstly it is a great size. A little bigger than many, indeed big enough to use as a day to day desk for working at, whilst not being overpoweringly large like many earlier georgian writing tables which one may find. It is also of exceptional quality. Clearly constructed in a top workshop it is constructed using high end, decorative rosewood veneers on the outside and a lot of mahogany as secondary timbers on the inside which is a great sign of quality. The entire table oozes class and sophistication in fact from top to bottom. The original turned wooden knobs are a nice feature, as is the high support...

Remarkable Late 19th century French Louis XV style gold giltwood vernis Martin curved glass curio cabinet. The French cabinet, with serpenti...