ATTRIBUTED TO FERDINAND BARBEDIENNE, PARIS, CIRCA 1870

Of complex form and rich design, this remarkable dressing table is fully evocative of the grand furniture produced for the celebrated International Exhibitions of the second half of the 19th century. Its combination of fine materials – exquisitely chased bronze, lapis lazuli panels and ivory inlay – evokes the luxurious tastes of the era, harmoniously incorporating artistic influences of the Renaissance and Ancien Régime into a work clearly produced with the ever-advancing technologies of the Belle Époque. This table most readily relates to the celebrated table de toilette shown by Christofle at the 1867 Exposition universelle and today in the Musée des arts-décoratifs, Paris (33777). The Christofle table, with its delicately sculpted figures and elaborate decoration, is the result of an artistic collaboration: the design was realized by by Émile Reiber (1826-1893), the sculpted caryatids by Albert Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (1824-1887) and the luxurious ornamentation by Joseph Chéret (1838-1894). The same could be suggested of the present lot whose figures bespeak the hand of one of the finest sculptors of the Second Empire and whose intricate decoration and precise construction were no doubt the result of a similarly successful artistic partnership.