Ref.11377
Very beautiful Japanese bedroom furniture in sycamore

These japanese bedroom furniture were made in the late 19th century of tainted sycamore in the taste of Gabriel Viardot or the production of the Maison des Bambous and includes 3 pieces : - A bed (H : 267,5 cm ; L : 157 cm; P : 208,5 cm) - A bedside table (H : 80,5 cm ; L : 60 cm ; P : 37,5 cm) - A wardrobe (H : 235 cm ; L :148 cm ; P : 53 cm). The bed is adorned with a very high headboard with Japanese open work friezes to which was hang a beautiful and colored tapestry in the same taste, adorned with an ibis in plants very characteristif of the Far-East. It also depicts an engraved and in relief decoration of asian motifs, bamboos and dragons, lightened up with inlaid element of mother-of-pearl. The bedside table is composed of an engraved slab with rolled edges, it opens with a small drawer with its key and a small cupboard having also its keys. The door is also adorned with inlaid mother-of-pearl. The asymmetrical wardrobe, as it is very often the case in the production of Japanese furniture, opens by a large mirror door, a drawer and a small cupbord. Its decoration in relief is lightened up with a mother-of-pearl inlaid scene depicting characters sat under a temple. One of the furniture mounts takes the shape of an ibis on a turtle shell.

Ref.13453
Maison des Bambous, Alfred PERRET et Ernest VIBERT (attributed to)- Japanese bed with dragon-tigers

This Far-East inspired bed, made in the late 19th century, is attributed to the Maison des Bambous of Perret and Vibert. Alfred Perret founded in 1879 in Paris a firm specialized in the creation of bamboo furniture and importation of authentically Japanese objects for a rich Parisian clientele. Located on the 33 de la rue du Quatre-Septembre, the firm becomes then specialized in the beginning of the 1880's in the fabrication of sculpted wood furniture inspired by the Far-East. In 1886, the firm is taken by the son of Alfred Perret and by Ernest Vibert, it becomes thus, « Perret et Vibert » and will take the name « Maison des Bambous » in the early 1890. Perret and Vibert, astrue creators of their time, participate to the World Fair of 1889 taking place in Paris and win two silver medals. Following this first exhibition, they participate to many others : in 1894 the Exposition Universelle, Internationale et Coloniale of Lyon and the Exposition d'Horticulture des Tuileries, in 1900 to the World Fair of Paris. Our Japanese bed present a rich decoration inspired by the Far East iconogrpahy. The headboard is crossed by a threatening hybrid creature, with a dragon body and a tiger head on which is attached a cartouche with a monogram. The headboard and footboard, on which we find the samed hybrid creature, are also adorned with plants and animals motifs sculpted in relief in the wood or inlaid with ivory and mother of pearl. Our bed comes from the same address as the reference 13452 - Furniture for bathroom sink with its dragon mirror.

Ref.15606
BALLEROY & Co. (porcelain), Joseph Albert PONSIN (painter), Pair of Decorative Plates Adorned with Portraits of an Assyrian Man and Woman, 1876?

This Pair of Ornamental Porcelain Dishes Was Crafted by the Company Balleroy & Cie in Limoges and Decorated by Joseph Albert Ponsin, Likely in 1876 Both dishes bear the mark of the company Balleroy & Cie. In 1900, brothers Antoine and Henri Balleroy acquired a factory in Limoges. Their partnership with Léon Mandavy and Paul Grenouillet de Mavaleix four years later resulted in the formation of the company “Balleroy & Cie”. The Balleroy brothers continued the business independently from 1908 onward, and Henri Balleroy eventually assumed sole leadership in 1929, managing the enterprise until its closure in 1937. The works are signed by Joseph Albert Ponsin (1842-1899), a former actor and songwriter who became one of the most renowned stained-glass painters of the late 19th century. Awarded a bronze medal at the 1889 World Fair, Ponsin also designed a “luminous palace” made of several thousand molded glass pieces for the 1900 Paris Exhibition. His use of porcelain is highly unusual within his work. The decorations on the two dishes are complementary, both in their chromatic harmony and in the selection and poses of the figures. The male figure’s profile exudes a certain severity, despite his slightly smiling lips. His long hair is matched by a similarly full beard. He wears an earring, and his opulent tunic combines gold and green. The female figure, in contrast, stands out against a blue background. Her attire is distinctly oriental: her gown is trimmed with gold, and her long black hair is adorned with a veil, secured on each side by two serpents and a wide golden band. In front of her is a white bird with a long yellow beak, which wraps its neck around one of its wings. Beneath the artist’s signature, the inscription “1[8?]76” provides an approximate date for the creation of these works. The portrait of the man bears a resemblance to the Dish with Assyrian Design by Théodore Deck and Albert Anker, housed in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. Both Anker and Ponsin appear to have drawn inspiration from the same source: Sir Henry Layard’s publication, The Monuments of Nineveh from Drawings Made on the Spot Illustrated in 100 Plates (London, 1849). In Ponsin’s work, the male figure’s profile closely mirrors those in Layard’s book, though he took greater liberties than Anker in his interpretation of the character’s headdress.

Ref.16067
Antonio Salviati (Vicenza, 1816 – Venice, 1890), attributed to Mosaic portrait of Bernard Palissy

Trained as a lawyer, Antonio Salviati developed a keen interest in glassmaking and mosaic production. In 1859, after contributing to the restoration of the mosaics of St Mark’s Basilica, he founded his first glass and mosaic workshop. In 1866 he established a second company—Salviati & Cie—which he later divided into two distinct branches: glassmaking on the one hand and mosaic production on the other. Salviati was entrusted with major commissions. His firms produced the mosaic glass for the reredos of the high altar at Westminster Abbey (1866–1867), took part in the restoration of the Palatine Chapel in Aachen, executed exterior mosaics for the Opéra Garnier, and contributed to the decoration of the Albert Memorial, inaugurated in 1872. Salviati’s enterprise also became renowned for reviving the traditional glassmaking of Murano. This mosaic portrait depicts the French ceramist Bernard Palissy (1510–1590). Celebrated for his polychrome dishes and basins decorated with animals in relief, Palissy is shown here dressed in 16th-century attire. Rendered in a three-quarter view, he holds in his hands a “rustique figuline,” the term he used to describe his own creations. An eel or serpent can be discerned on the surface of the basin, recalling examples such as MR 2293 or R 231 preserved at the Musée du Louvre. In a similar spirit, Salviati supplied the tesserae for the mosaic portrait of Abraham Lincoln executed by Enrico Podio in 1866, now held in the United States Senate. Public appreciation for the meticulous craftsmanship of mosaicists has been particularly strong in Italy since the 16th century. While the 18th century renewed the fashion for micro-mosaics in precious luxury objects, the 19th century restored mosaic art to its status as a public art form—just as it had long been in Salviati’s native Venice. Through his entrepreneurial spirit, the lawyer-turned-master glassmaker played a central role in the resurgence of mosaic art in Europe between 1866 and 1890.