Sideboard by Ernest Boiceau, France, circa 1930

Burl wood cabinet with brass accents throughout. The interior features drawers and shelves. Signed on the upper right brass band.

Steel two-tier console with each tier featuring a gray tinted glass top.  

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...

Beautiful Art Deco period Sideboard / Buffet in Walnut Veneer with curved front from France about 1930 Walnut veneered, hand-polished with shellac (french polish). Original, nickel...