French, 19th-20th Century Louis XV Style Gilt Bronze-Mounted Vitrine by Haentges

A Fine French 19th-20th century Louis XV style ormolu-mounted tulipwood vitrine with marble top, in the manner of François Linke (1855-1946). The slender single door cabinet fitted w...

A Fine and Large French 19th/20th Century Louis XV Style Mahogany and Gilt-Bronze Mounted Three-Corps Vitrine Cabinet. The converted three door display case with twin bombé (rounded)...

A very fine 19th century French Louis XV kingwood and parquetry designed viewing cabinet. Lined with a gold silk . Fine gilt bronze mounts. Stamped Haentges Freres Paris

A wonderful late 19th century Louis XV style gilt bronze mounted vitrine by Joseph Zwiener. Joseph Zwiener The serpentine-shaped brèche d’ alep marble top above a single centered glass door, flanked to each side by a conforming panel, the mirrored interior fitted with three adjustable glass shelves, the canted angles set with pierced foliate-cast clasps, above a bombé shaped apron, on cabriole legs with scrolled-acanthus sabots. The quality of the cabinetry and solid wood frame, along with the quality and design of the mounts, is characteristic of Zwiener’s oeuvre. Similar flower-filled cornucopia chutes can be found on other Zwiener models. Born in Herdon, Germany, in 1849, Joseph Emmanuel Zwiener followed the tradition of some of the best ébnistes of the nineteenth century. He moved to Paris establishing a workshop at 12, rue de la Roquette, between 1880 and 1895. He produced a wide array of the very finest furniture, modelling in his own interpretations of the eighteenth century Louis XV Rococo style, veneered with the highest and finest quality marquetry and ‘Vernis Martin’ panels. Exhibiting at the Exposition Universelle, Paris, in 1889, Zwiener was awarded a gold medal for what the jury reported as ‘dè ses dèbuts à une Exposition Universelle, [il] s’est mi au premier rang par la richesse, la hardinesse, et le fini de ses meubles incrustés de bronze et fort habilment marquetés.’ Zwiener was closely associated with François Linke, and the two houses produced work which, at first glance, is remarkably similar and with occasionally identical mounts. The similarities are made more likely by the fact that the brilliant sculptor, Léon Messagé, worked initially for Zwiener and subsequently, upon Zwiener’s departure for Berlin to work on furniture commissioned by Freidrich Wilhelm II , he was employed in the workshop of François Linke. It appears that Zwiener, unlike Linke, did not sign all his work, although some stamped pieces with his name and/or his “Z” initial are documented. There is some uncertainty between the recorded stamp E. Zwiener and the work of a Julius Zwiener...