French Chinoiserie Desk after Gabriel Viardot

Rare Japanese style cylinder desk in tinted and carved wood, richly engraved on all sides with foliage, cherry branches and geometric interlacing. Surmounted by two asymmetrical shelves, the cylinder is decorated with an engraved dragon. Opening this cylinder reveals many compartments with adjustable dimensions, a drawer with engraved decoration and letter storage. The cylinder sides can open laterally, allowing a larger area for working and writing. The lower part of the desk is formed on the left by five superimposed drawers decorated with geometric interlacing and carved branches, as well as Japanese characters, deer and mother-of-pearl foliage. On the right, there is a drawer and a door decorated with carved leaves and mother-of-pearl interlacing, revealing four drawers forming compartments. An ingenious mechanism makes it possible, when the cylinder is closed with a key, to completely lock the desk. Gabriel Viardot career began as a wood carver and he produced small furniture, sculpturally carved with naturalistic motifs and animals. In the 1855 Exposition Universelle in Paris, his finely sculpted objects were well received. However, with the increasing importation of similarly produced Swiss and German articles, he found less opportunity for these and decided to innovate. G. Viardot succeeded to his father’s business in 1861 installed rue Rambuteau in Paris. Around 1870 he turned to the idea of producing « Meubles genre Chinois et Japonais ». The taste in Europe for exotic furniture, incorporating sometimes authentic Chinese or Japanese objects...

A wonderfully stylized Japanned partners pedestal desk, having carved, inlaid and engraved classical decoration, an inset leather top, eleven drawers to one side, each with brass turtle handles, the reverse with engraved mother of Pearl inlaid doors, raised on carved cabriole legs. Attributed to; Gabriel Viardot (1830-1906) was a famous Parisian cabinetmaker specializing in the production of “Chinese-Japanese genre” furniture in the last third of the 19th century. He started his career as a wood sculptor in 1849, when he sent some naturalistic décor furniture...

Royal House Antiques Royal House Antiques is delighted to offer for sale this very rare and important, museum quality Gabriel Viardot 1830-1906 attributed writing desk with sublime ...

Exotic Japanese French vitrines attributed to Gabriel Viardot. Carved hardwood with Fine brass mounts. Interior with old silk velvet. Great size. France. 19th century.   Gabriel...

Exotic Japanese French vitrines attributed to Gabriel Viardot. Carved hardwood with Fine brass mounts. Interior with old silk velvet. Great size. France. 19th century.   Gabriel...

Desk with shelf and drawers by René Gabriel, 1950 This desk is one of the last pieces designed by the greatest designer of the French Reconstruction: René Gabriel (1899-1950). René Gabriel (1899 - 1950) is a precursor of French industrial design. He was one of the first to create, as early as the 1930s, economical mass-produced furniture combining aestheticism, robustness and sobriety, a source of inspiration for a whole generation of future designers. A student at the Germain Pilon School and then at the National School of Decorative Arts, René Gabriel began as a domino maker by designing and producing his own wallpapers, and then made his mark as a decorative artist in most of the salons and international exhibitions of the inter-war period. In 1927, he began his research into the creation of mass-produced furniture and proposed a piece of furniture composed of juxtaposable and superposable elements. He studied an economical version that he presented in 1934 at the Salon des arts ménagers under the name of RG elements. Another major turning point came in 1944, when the Ministry of Reconstruction and Urban Planning commissioned him to create emergency furniture. A fervent advocate of furniture for all, René Gabriel designed numerous models for disaster victims by establishing close ties with industry. He also collaborated with Auguste Perret...