An Exceptional Late 19th Century Gilt Bronze Mounted Louis XVI Style Vernis Martin, Marquetry and Parquetry Cabinet By Beurdeley

$95,000

Louis Auguste Alfred Beurdeley

The serpentine shaped white marble top above a long single drawer centered to the front by satyrs and musical trophies entwined with grape vines, the central section finely decorated door panel displaying an allegorical ‘Vernis Martin’ landscape scene with “Cherubs at Play”, within a gilt-bronze bow tied banded frame, the mounts on the Bombay sides similarly decorated with satyrs and with beautiful diamond shaped inlaid floral marquetry separated by gilt bronze florets, the four foliate and acanthus leaf mounted spiral columns leading down to straight legs on bun feet.

Stamped A Beurdeley A Paris under the marble top and BY on the back of some of the bronzes.

The same model but with lacquer panels was exhibited at Beurdeley’s stand at the 1867 Paris exhibition, where he won the gold medal. Phillip Bury commented at the exhibition on the fine quality of the chasing and gilding of Beurdeley’s work which reached a standard rarely, if ever, surpassed by other Paris makers. Two distinctive Beurdeley features can clearly be seen, the pearl beading around the frieze panels and the diamond paterae in gilt bronze “joining” the trellis.

Beurdeley, Louis-Auguste and Emmanuel-Alfred (1808-1882 and 1847-1919). The firm exhibited and won awards at all of the major international exhibitions during the second half of the nineteenth century. The quality and skill employed in production was of exceptional quality; their ormolu mounts with mercurial gilding and hand chasing were often difficult to distinguish from late eighteenth-century examples, and were considered the finest in Paris. The firm was pioneered by Jean Beurdeley (1772-1853), later managed by his son Louis-Auguste-Alfred, and finally imparted to his son Alfred-Emmanuel-Louis in 1875. The firm was established at 32 and 34, rue Louis-Le-Grand, and also owned the pavillion de Hanovre, where it  was based while Alfred-Emmanuel-Louis added two additional workshops at 20 and 24, rue Dautancourt by 1875. The Beurdeley workshops closed in 1896, although still partially active until 1898 and the stock was sold over a number of auctions conducted by the Galerie Georges Petit of Paris. Two auction catalogues of the collection were published in 1895 and sales were held between March 6-8 and May 27-28.

Among Beurdeley’s most prestigious clients were Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie, the duc D’aumale, Richard Wallace, the Duc and Princess d’Hamilton, Tsarine Alexandra Féodorovna, The Rothschild and Vanderbilt dynasties and the Metropolitan Club, New York.

Details:
Height – 42 inches / 107cm
Width – 55.5 inches / 141cm
Depth – 21.5 inches / 55cm