Art Deco Chinoiserie Chairs

The delicate, lightweight chiavari chair was first made in the Italian town of Chiavari in the early years of the 19th century. Their elegance and grace would come to charm Mid-Century Modernists, and inspire Gio Ponti to create his Superleggera chair. Unlike most midcentury chiavari chairs...

More sculpture than furniture, this finely-carved 1860s folding chair has a gilded and gessoed wood frame, and the original cut-silk-velvet upholstery material that was woven to fit....

This Boiceau desk bears his stamp, and was entirely veneered in amboyna, an exotic burlwood named for Ambon, the Indonesian island where it was harvested. The naturally squiggling patterning of the veneer provides an overall surface decoration. The top alone has no fewer than 60 small book-matched squares of it – ten across and six deep – creating a kaleidoscopic effect in subtle monochrome. Applied decoration is minimal. It consists of two inlaid pairs of griffins in boxwood and purplewood facing off across braziers on both the front and the back of the desk, and blind-tooled Greek keys trimming white-leather-topped shelves that slide out to either side. These decorations introduce no color, and, in lying flush with the surface, leave the sleek form undisturbed. Boiceau even eliminated drawer pulls, necessitating a lock and key for each drawer. Born in Lausanne in 1881, Boiceau descended from French Huguenots who had settled in Switzerland. Prominent as bankers, lawyers, businessmen, and diplomats, the Boiceaus were a cosmopolitan family. Ernest studied painting in Munich, and then painting and architecture in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts. In 1900 he embarked on a ten-year European sojourn, painting landscapes and portraits along the way. In 1910 he resettled in Paris, became interested in textiles, and established an embroidery workshop that catered to the stage and haute couture. Among his clients were the Folies Bergères, the Comédie-Française, and the Paris Opéra, and the fashion houses of Worth and Molyneux. He also made embroidered table linens, wall hangings, and upholstery fabrics. In a 1913, at an embroidery exhibition in Paris at the Musée Galliera, he presented a boudoir in collaboration with curtains, upholstery fabrics, and a tapestry, embroidered in modern abstract designs. In 1925 he launched a couture line, and branched out to design finely crafted objects and furniture made in rare woods, like ebony and Tasmanian oak...

This large Art Deco table is attributed to the Austrian born New York designer Eugene Schoen. The mahogany carcass is veneered in Macassar, and surfaced with a sheet of black opaline...

Small art deco side chair of unusual design. Original paint. Recently reupholstered with vintage fabric.

Pair of French Art Deco chairs, covered in shark skin with ivory like accents. Measures: Width 25", total height 23", seat height 18", depth 12".

A pair of Art Deco side chairs. Stained beechwood with fluted leg details.

Pair of bentwood Art Deco design stripped side chairs with geometric upholstered seat and fluted open geometric designed back and front legs.