Lot 37
37
AN IMPORTANT SILVER-GILT, WOOD AND EMBOSSED-LEATHER BOX

Details
AN IMPORTANT SILVER-GILT, WOOD AND EMBOSSED-LEATHER BOX
DESIGNED BY EDMOND-HENRI BECKER AND MADE BY ALFRED MENU FOR BOUCHERON, PARIS, CIRCA 1900
Shaped triangular, the leather-clad cover and sides relief-decorated with pinecones and needles, the silver-gilt rim, hinge, and foot also decorated with pinecones and needles, the rim set with four cabochon amethysts, the sides set with silver insects, the hinged cover opening to a carved mahogany interior with silver-gilt borders of pinecones and needles, the cover signed "Boucheron Paris", the bezel and base struck with maker's mark AM and poinçon de garantie--5½in. wide, 3 1/8in. deep, 1¾in. high

Lot Essay

This box belongs to a small group of silver-mounted and relief-decorated wood objects designed by Becker for Boucheron and exhibited at the Paris Exposition of 1900. The largest and most famous of Becker's objects for the Exposition is a mantel clock with mounts by silversmith Menu. (See Catherine Arminjon et al., L'Art de Vivre, New York, 1989, fig. 366, p. 214.) Two other boxes with bas-relief panels characteristic of Becker are a bonbonnière decorated with mistletoe and a boite à timbres carved with a lady's profile (see catalogue, Exposition Boucheron, Institut de France-Musée Jacquemart André, 1988, figs. 105-108, p. 35; for biographies of Becker and Menu, pp. 76 and 77).

The sculpture of Edmond-Henri Becker was widely-acclaimed at the time of the Paris Exposition of 1900. A number of his art nouveau designs for small objects in wood and metal were published in Art et Decoration in April, 1901, pp. 109-119. Becker was both the designer and modeler of his work for Boucheron.