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An Empire Napoleonic 19th century style ormolu-mounted, marquetry, veneer inlaid and marble demilune sideboard. The demilune eared marble top above a veneer inlaid shaped frieze ornamented with an exquisite ormolu ribbon-tied torch garlands terminating to each side with a winged Neoclassical style male and female. The shaped frieze above three large drawers and two doors to each side, all are ornamented with foliate marquetry patterns. The section is divided with marble columns supports with gilt ormolu palm capitals surmounted with foliate scalloped ormolu mounts. Bothe drawers and doors are inlaid with ormolu strips all over the contour with a central gilt-ormolu foliate works and urn filled with flower cartouche to each door. The shaped veneer inlaid ormolu striped base ornamented with flower rosettes and raised on a fine chiseled paw feet
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Ref#550| Description

An Empire Napoleonic 19th century style ormolu-mounted, marquetry, veneer inlaid and marble demilune sideboard

The demilune eared marble top above a veneer inlaid shaped frieze ornamented with an exquisite ormolu ribbon-tied torch garlands terminating to each side with a winged Neoclassical style male and female.

The shaped frieze above three large drawers and two doors to each side, all are ornamented with foliate marquetry patterns. The section is divided with marble columns supports with gilt ormolu palm capitals surmounted with foliate scalloped ormolu mounts. Both drawers and doors are surrounded by ormolu bands all over the contour with a central large ormolu medallion of urn filled with flower surmounted by a shell amidst blossoming foliate movement to each door;

The veneer inlaid ormolu bordered base ornamented with flower rosettes on circular blocks and raised on a fine chiseled ormolu paw feet.

Ref#550

170 x 55 x 93cm

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The Empire Style

The period of Napoleonic rule lends its name to the late Neoclassical style that characterizes artistic creations of the era, including the Directory and Consulate periods. Napoleon I visited French textile, porcelain, and furniture workshops to encourage their increased production for the greater glory of France, and all of the arts served to promote his regime. Revolutionary conquests were echoed in the fine and decorative arts, in which figures of Fame and Victory abounded. Antique forms and ornament, already seen in the Louis XVI style, blended with Napoleon’s imperial symbols, which included the bee, the letter N surrounded by a laurel wreath, stars, the eagle, and exotic hieroglyphic motifs culled from the Egyptian campaign (May 1795–October 1799). Empress Joséphine was fond of swans; they decorate the chair arms, curtains, carpets, and porcelain in the state rooms of her home at Malmaison.

Courts across Europe adopted the Empire style, especially in Russia, where it became a staple. In Germany and Austria, it coexisted with the gentler Biedermeier associated with modest domestic interiors. Charles Percier (1764–1838) and Pierre François Léonard Fontaine (1762–1853) were the two most influential figures in the field of Empire decoration and furnishing. Official architects to the court of Napoleon, their main responsibility was the renovation of the various royal residences. Their Recueil des décorations intérieures (1812) was an essential handbook of the Empire style.

Egyptian elements and themes were imported and distributed principally by Baron Dominique-Vivant Denon (1747–1825), the archaeologist to the Middle East expedition. In 1802, he published Voyage dans la Basse et la Haute Égypte pendant les campagnes du Général Bonaparte, in which drawings and etchings of herms, palm leaves, mummified Egyptians, caryatids, and other exotica are copied directly from temples, funeral columns, and royal tombs. Later appointed director of the Central Museum of Arts (Louvre), Denon was instrumental in associating the future emperor with Egyptianized design in France, though Egyptomania already had became à la mode in the eighteenth century.

Neoclassical and Egyptian images enlivened Empire objects of every description, including wall decorations (27.191.2), silver, papiers peints (wallpaper) by Jean Zuber and Joseph Dufour, fabrics from Jouy and Lyon, Gobelins tapestries, Sèvres and Dagoty china, and furniture. Usually made of mahogany from Cuba and the Antilles (which replaced the variety of precious woods previously used), and fitted with brass and ormolu figurines drawn from myth and history, Empire furniture was largely austere and geometric. Goldsmith Pierre Philippe Thomire (1751–1843) drew recognition as a skilled maker of bronze mounts for such pieces. Henri Auguste (1759–1816), Jean-Baptiste-Claude Odiot (1763–1850), and Martin-Guillaume Biennais (1764–1843) (34.17.1a-c) crafted elegant services, nefs, jewels, and snuffboxes in precious metals for the emperor and empress, sometimes after Percier and Fontaine designs. (Met Museum)

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