French 19th Century Curule Lacquered Stool, circa 1880

A French 19th Century Pair of Large Rectangular Curule Stools Gilt and carved wood, decorated with interlace frieze, acanthus leaves and rosaces The 4 feet linked by a gadrooned stretcher. Louis XVI Style Napoléon III Period In the manner of Georges Jacob (1739-1814) Attributed to Maison Jansen Circa 1900 Used Petit Point Tapestry Upholstery Maison Jansen, the French luxury: Opulence, refinement, audacity of style marriages… so many words agree with Maison Jansen. Through this name, a whole era sounds like a reminder of a certain French chic… Some names evoke immutable images, atmospheres... Like Jansen, for example. Let’s close our eyes… The 1960s and 1970s are at their peak. France is doing well. It is a country of full employment where everything seems possible. Within the international Jet Set, a carefree crowd of movie stars, public figures, literary idols and crowned heads, we love the Maison Jansen, its taste for styles struck with a good quality exuberance, and its brilliant side. It all began in 1880, when the Dutchman Jean Henri Jansen founded the epon-ymous house in Paris. Jansen is part of the continuity of these world-famous furniture manufacturers and companies that operated under the Second Empire and at the time of the Universal Exhibitions, as the ‘Escalier de Cristal’ teaches. At that time, the Union Centrale des Beaux-Arts appliqués à l'Indus-trie and the Société du musée des Arts Décoratifs merged to form the Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs. Supported by both gallery owners, collectors and manufacturers, this organi-zation gives the «la» to the whole profession, and in the prevailing politico-ideological slump (France was defeated by Prussia in 1871 and Napoleon III is in exile), the ‘Union Centrale des Art Décoratifs’ focuses production on the celebration of past styles. While this nostalgia evokes memories of an era that we imagine more stable, an innovative exoticism will be all the rage: the reign of Turkish style and Japonisme. The Jansen house masterfully rushed into the «exotic» trend, but quickly de-veloped a style derived from the ornamental splendor of the eighteenth, then a little later, so-called «imperial» styles mainly intended for royal families. Af-ter the First World War, J.H Jansen was joined by the cartoonist Albert Cazes, by Stéphane Boudin and by Pierre Delbée, who successively directed the house when it disappeared in 1929. At the end of the Kennedy era, Boudin complete-ly redecorated the White House, at the request of the First Lady, Jackie, who had fallen in love with his work after discovering it at Malmaison. In 1971, Jansen joined forces with Leleu-Deshays and continued its quest for excellence. From 1969 to 1979, the dandy decorator Serge Robin took the reins of the house, granting it an eclectic and luxurious style: he revisited the great eras of French art, from the Renaissance to Louis XVI, by modernizing them with more contemporary pieces in Plexiglas or wrought iron. His recomposed and sophisticated style met with resounding success. When Jackie Kennedy, who became the wife of the great Greek shipowner Aristotle Onassis, moved to France, the young architect married Louis XVI-style furniture to modernist designs from the 1950s. When the Shah of Iran decided to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Per-sian Empire in 1971, Serge Robin and his teams turned to the grandiose and ephemeral setting of Persepolis. A hundred semi-trailers then left the work-shops on Rue Saint-Sabin to reach Tehran. At the same time, Princess Soraya of Iran commissioned her a sumptuous palace for Avenue Montaigne, the princes Faisal bin Fahd of Arabia and Mubarak Al-Sabah, and the Agnelli snatched it. On the French side, he puts his talent at the service of Brigitte Bardot, for whom he completely revamped the Madrague and the Lannes boulevard. Serge Robin embodies all the audacity of the name Jansen with the most im-probable weddings. With him, Plexiglas tables, Japanese chairs from the 50s, gold thread curtains, zebra sofas...

A French 19th Century Pair of Large Rectangular Stools natural and carved wood. The 4 sheaths feet carved and linked by a stretcher. Louis XIV Style Napoléon III Period Circa 1880...

A 19th century French polychromed lacquered wood eight-light chandelier Lacquered gloss cream wood with green, red and brown highlights Contained vase ending in foliated seed welcoming eight arms forming semicircles. The top has a frieze of red flowers in green interlacing and is topped with leaves and a painted egg cream...

A very good quality 19th century French charming two-tier side table with a single frieze drawer parquetry inlaid, designed with Allegories of Geography and Astronomy, with pierced t...

Pair of French Napoléon III Curule Armchairs Moulded, carved, blackened wood, enhanced with gold. Open-banded back decorated with interlacing, X-bas...

A 19th French century pair of Lacquered Bamboos Japonisme vases. An amazing pair of tall cylindrical bamboo vases decorated in Japanese Gold and Sil-ver Hiramaki-E Lacquer with Pavilions in The Mist and Weaving Figures, Flown Over by a Pair of Cranes. Enclosed in a Sino-Japanese Inspiration Golden and Brown Patina Bronze Mount Featuring Elephant Heads, Partially Openwork Branches and Salamanders Forming Side Handles. Circa 1870 Attributed to Édouard Lièvre (1828-1886) and Ferdinand Barbedienne (1810-1892) Édouard Lièvre (1828-1886) is one of the most talented and prolific designer and industrialist of the 19th Century, his repertoire is sometimes Sino-Japanese or Neo-Renaissance, whether in furniture or works of art, we can note in particular the parade bed of Valtesse de La Bigne, furniture commissioned by the painter Édouard Detaille or even Sarah Bernhardt, and the famous works in collaboration with Maison Christofle or those in gilded bronze and cloisonné enamel edited by Ferdinand Barbedienne, presented at the Universal Exhibitions in 1878, 1889 and 1900. He was both a draftsman, painter, illustrator, engraver, ornamentalist and cabinetmaker, first trained in the studio of the painter Thomas Couture, Lièvre was then fully immersed in the world of decoration, creation and ornamentation and provides designs for manufacturers and merchant-publishers. Often assisted by his brother Justin, he first produced works of art for his own apartment, seeking out the finest craftsmen to execute his designs for bronzes, ceramics, fabrics and luxury furniture from great virtuosity and great taste. He then collaborated with the cabinet-maker Paul Sormani, as well as haberdasher merchants such as the Escalier de Cristal, bronziers such as Maison Marnyhac and especially Ferdinand Barbedienne as on our vases with bronze mounts characteristics of Edouard Lièvre's work. Born in 1810, died in Paris in 1892, Ferdinand Barbedienne, the most important caster of bronze pieces of art during the second half of the 19th Century, created and directed in Par-is one of the major artistic foundries of his time. Barbedienne specialized in classical reproductions, whose models were exposed in famous European museums. Their illustrated catalogues included many diverse objects such as busts, ornemental sculpture (clocks, candelabras, cups) sometimes even life-sized and bronzes for furniture. Apart from his own produc-tion, Barbedienne worked for the most renowned sculptors such as Barrias, Clésinger and Carrier-Belleuse. All his works were highly esteemed and he, himself honored by contemporary critics. At the London exhibition in 1851 Barbedienne’s firm won two « Council medals ». At the 1855 Universal Exhibition, he won a medal of honor. The success of Barbedienne’s firm brought him many official commissions, such in about 1860, as Barbedienne supplied bronzes for furniture for the Pompeian Villa of Prince Napoléon-Joseph, located avenue Montaigne in Paris. At the London Universal Exhibition of 1862 Barbedienne won medals in three different categories: Furniture, Silversmith work and Artistic bronzes. Barbedienne was made an officer of the Légion d’Honneur in 1867 and Commander in 1878 when he was compared with « a prince of industry and the king of bronze casting ». His glory did not decline with the passage of the time for at the Universal Exhibition of 1889 the critics thanked Barbedienne for the example he set for other bronze-casters by the perfection of his bronzes. “Japonisme” in the second half of the 19th century, was a craze for everything that came from Japan or imitated its style. The word was first coined in a series of articles published by Philippe Burty, from May 1872 to February 1873, in the French magazine “la Renaissance Littéraire et Artistique”. Far from the Academic sphere, artists seeking for new ways of expression, appropriated this discovery. Manet and the impressionists led the way to half a century of enthusiasm for Japanese art, and largely contributed to the esthetical revolution Europe experienced between 1860 and the beginning of the twentieth century. From 1862, The World’s Fairs provoked massive arrivals of fans, kimonos, lacquers, bronzes, silks, prints and books that launched the real era of Japonisme. With those exhibitions, the demand was boosted, the number of merchants and collectors was multiplied, and artists became passionate about this new esthetic. For them, its “primitivism” was probably its most important quality: artists were fond of the Japanese art’s capacity to be close to nature and to reconcile art and society by representing, with a lot of care, the most trivial objects. In painting, Edouard Manet, Mary Cassatt, Degas, Van Gogh, Gauguin were among those who were deeply inspired by Japanese art, affected by the lack of perspective and shadow, the flat areas of strong color, the compositional freedom in placing the subject off-center, with mostly low diagonal axes to the background. The Japanese iris, peonies, bamboos, kimonos, calligraphy, fish, butterflies and other insects, the blackbirds, cranes and wading birds, the cats, tigers, and dragons were endless sources of inspiration, appropriation, and reinterpretation for European artists. The occidental productions were combining styles and artistic conceptions instead of copying Japanese art slavishly. That is what brings to light the comparison between the artworks of Kitagawa Utamaro and Degas, of Katsushika Hokusai and Van Gogh The World’s Fairs of 1851 and 1862 in London, those of 1867, 1878, 1889 and 1900 in Paris, of 1873 in Vienna and of 1904 in Saint Louis presented a number of “Japanese-Chinese” installations with earthenware, bronzes, screens and paintings and attracted the largest amounts of visitors In Vienna, the “Japanese village...

Elegant French mahogany hand carved curule stool with four swan's heads decorating the armrests. It is made in Empire style and is with the original upholstery in red and yellow in q...

A exceptionally carved Italian Renaissance Revival figural curule stool. Born in Italy during the late 19th century, hand-crafted of warm, rich, finely carved solid walnut, finished in medieval Henry II style / Italian Empire taste, featuring X-frame with curved armrests ending in ornate stylized lion's head / griffin grotesques, having an upholstered seat cushion adorned with nail head trim, rising on foliate carving turned stretcher-joined richly detailed acanthus leaf accented legs, terminating in finely sculpted lion paw feet. A wonderful example of functional art, the impressive antique, circa 1880, having beautifully aged patina over the whole, retaining original antique character throughout, worn smooth, naturally distressed patina that does not detract from the overall display, but only adds to the elegant rustic warmth, historical depth and European old world charm. Dimensions: (approx) 25.5" High, 34" Wide, 16" Deep Seat height: 16" Great antique condition. Presents well, having nicely aged patina. Later antique metal plate...

An English carved-mahogany wood curule-style stool from the 19th century. This antique stool from England has been created in the Curule (or often referred to as Dante) style, featur...

A French walnut X-form curule stool from the 19th century, with Corinthian capitals and new upholstery. Created in France during the 19th century, this walnut stool features a square...

A very handsome French later 19th century stool in richly stained oak. A wonderful accent piece for any casually elegant surrounding.

A 19th century French Louis XVI style adjustable swivel stool made of solid hand carved walnut with x-stretcher and wood finials. The seat of this small stool may be easily adjusted ...