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Lot Essay
This large and impressive console table and mirror is carved with the arms of the Kingdom of Egypt used by the Viceroys and Khedives during the 19th century. A paper label to the back-rail of the console identifies it as once gracing the Grand Antechamber of the Gezira Palace in Zamalek, Cairo. The Gezira Palace is located on an island in the River Nile which was first developed by Khedive Ismail Pasha with lush gardens and a summer house, or 'Kiosk', which the Khedive replaced with a Palace during the early 1860s for the visit of Empress Eugénie to open the Suez Canal in 1869.
The exuberant carved decoration incorporating floral garlands and guerrier trophies is very much in the Imperial style revived by Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie in their renovations at the châteaux Compiègne and St. Cloud. The Khedive's intention at Gezira was to build a palace becoming of the Impératrice and it is therefore fitting that the carving and execution compares to menuiserie pieces produced by Cruchet, Fourdinois and Grohé for the Garde-Meuble Impérial.
The exuberant carved decoration incorporating floral garlands and guerrier trophies is very much in the Imperial style revived by Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie in their renovations at the châteaux Compiègne and St. Cloud. The Khedive's intention at Gezira was to build a palace becoming of the Impératrice and it is therefore fitting that the carving and execution compares to menuiserie pieces produced by Cruchet, Fourdinois and Grohé for the Garde-Meuble Impérial.