Christie’s meets Féau Boiseries: a ‘truly magical’ combination

Behind the unassuming façade of 9 Rue Laugier in Paris lies an Aladdin’s cave of antique wood panelling, bronze and marble fragments, architectural drawings, plaster models and decorative cornices. For interior designers, this is a place of pilgrimage: the 2,000-square-metre showroom of the historic French woodwork specialists Féau Boiseries.

The family-run company, which was founded on the same site by Charles Fournier in 1875, specialises in the design, restoration and custom creation of traditional French wood panelling (boiseries). Since taking over the business from their father in 2000, Guillaume Féau and his sister Angélique have completed high-profile residential and commercial projects from Paris to New York, and worked with some of the world’s most influential architects and interior designers, among them Pierre Yovanovitch, Jacques Garcia and Michael S. Smith.

‘The combination of our expertise, craftsmanship and exacting standards with an interior designer’s modern vision results in the production of unique schemes that blend French heritage with contemporary design,’ says Guillaume Féau. ‘There is nothing more exciting to me than recreating, with a contemporary interior designer, a Louis XV Rococo decorative scheme, carving it in oak blackened to the colour of charcoal, and placing a Francis Bacon within it.’

Alongside building the business, Féau has assembled one of the world’s largest private collections of antique wood panelling, much of which is on display in the Paris showroom. It spans four centuries, from the 1600s to the 1970s, and includes complete sets by great architects and designers such as Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, François-Joseph Bélanger and Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann. There is panelling made for Madame de Pompadour, Jeanne Lanvin and the celebrated 18th-century ballerina Marie-Madeleine Guimard.

Not surprisingly, the collection is an unrivalled source of inspiration for Féau and his team, as well as all those who come to see it. ‘The wood-panel decors we create for our clients are often inspired by historical examples in our archive,’ he says. ‘We then adapt them to their tastes and to the dimensions of their rooms, creating unique settings for their collections.’

Féau believes that the setting of a collection — or what he describes as its ‘architectural envelope’ — is of paramount importance. ‘Our boiserie decors vary in theme, style and complexity,’ he says. ‘Some are elaborate and ornate, while others are simple and understated, allowing a magnificent Rothko, a Klimt, or a beautiful Louis XV commode to take centre stage. This magical mix of styles and periods brings a certain balance and harmony to a room. That is what we call the grand goût, the great art of collecting and combining.’

Which leads us to his collaboration with Christie’s in Paris for Classic Week (until 5 November 2026). To mark the occasion, highlights from across the sales — including paintings, furniture, books and objects — were photographed against a diverse range of panelling at Féau Boiseries. The selection included Louis XIV-style oak panels by Jean-Michel Frank, original curved panels with arabesque decor from the Hôtel de Crillon (circa 1780-85) and 20th-century panels designed by Armand-Albert Rateau.

‘Photographing a range of exceptional objects spanning periods and styles in our showroom, where such diverse decorative schemes have been brought together over the past 150 years, was truly magical,’ says Féau. ‘I think it lends a certain poetry to the presentation.’

For Hippolyte de la Féronnière, head of European Furniture at Christie’s in Paris, the collaboration was a natural fit. ‘We are united by a passion for exceptional craftsmanship, connoisseurship and a desire to tell the stories behind objects,’ he says. ‘Our curated tableaux mix styles, colours and textures to create dialogues that spark intrigue.’

By way of example, Féau highlights a 20th-century gold-mounted humidor with a lapis-lazuli clasp by Garrard & Company, to be offered in The Exceptional Sale (3 November). This was photographed against a background of 19th-century Etruscan-style wood panelling by Charles Percier and Pierre Fontaine, originally installed in the grand gallery of the Château de l’Hermitage near Paris.

The box’s distinctive decorative finish was achieved using the ‘samorodok’ technique, which involves heating gold to a temperature close to melting point and then rapidly cooling it in cold water. This process gives the metal a particularly tactile texture resembling that of gold nuggets as they occur in nature. ‘I think this pairing is exceptionally bold and powerful,’ says Féau, adding that the dark backdrop is what makes the box really stand out. ‘I find the colour combination of Etruscan red, faux-bronze patina and gold remarkably sophisticated.’

He is also drawn to the Louis XVI ormolu-mounted Chinese blue porcelain clock, attributed to François Rémond, the movement signed by Charles Dutertre, dating from around 1775-1780. It was photographed in front of a suite of 20th-century panels designed by Rateau, in collaboration with Jeanne Lanvin, for the Pavillon de l’Elégance at the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris. ‘Rateau was a great admirer of the 18th century,’ says Féau of the striking pairing. ‘Surviving photographs of his study, where drawings by Ledoux, and by Percier and Fontaine, were displayed alongside 18th-century objects and his own creations, make it clear that these styles have long been perfectly compatible.’

Then there is the 1787 Sèvres porcelain cup from Marie Antoinette’s dairy at Rambouillet, which was photographed against Neoclassical panelling with arabesque paintings typical of the 1780s and 1790s. ‘The design of the cup is in perfect harmony with this Neoclassical decorative scheme,’ says Féau. ‘I think there is a genuine dialogue between these two elements dating from the period.’

Other Exceptional Sale highlights include a pair of Louis XV ormolu-mounted Chinese lacquer and vernis Martin commodes by François Rübestück (circa 1770-75); a Louis XVI ormolu-mounted, polychrome-painted sycamore chiffonnier by Jean-Baptiste Tuart and Ferdinand Bury, the painting attributed to Jean-Louis Prévot, circa 1770-1775; and a recently rediscovered early-18th-century pietra dura panel of the Annunciation produced in the Grand Ducal workshops in Florence under the direction of Giovanni Battista Foggini (1652-1725).

A selection of paintings and sculptures offered in Maîtres Anciens: Peintures — Dessins — Sculptures (4 November) were also photographed at the Féau Boiseries showroom, among them Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s Tête de jeune femme, which appears at auction for the first time in a century and was last seen in public at an exhibition at the Musée Fragonard in 1957.

Other notable highlights include François Boucher’s L’Immaculée Conception, another recent rediscovery, which is connected to a Boucher drawing of the same subject preserved in the Louvre; and a 15th-century Florentine tondo by the Master of Marradi depicting the Virgin and Child with Saint Joseph and two angels. A still life of sweetmeats by Juan van der Hamen y León, and one by Cristoforo Munari depicting a clock with porcelain, shells and books, are also offered.

As for sculpture, there is a bronze horse attributed to Antonio Susini, after Giambologna (circa 1605); and a large gilt-copper figure of an apostle from Limoges (circa 1190-1215), which was likely conceived as part of a larger decorative scheme representing the 12 apostles, intended for an altarpiece or a substantial shrine.

Select highlights from Livres rares et Manuscrits (until 5 November, online), were also photographed in the Féau Boiseries atelier. One such was the complete copy of The Life of the Virgin (1511), one of Albrecht Dürer’s three ‘great books’ alongside the Apocalypse (1498) and the Great Passion (1497-1510). Formerly in the collections of the noted French bibliophiles Henri Gallice and Marcel Jeanson, it was rebound by Quinet in the second half of the 19th century.

‘Single prints do come up on the market, in varying condition and printing quality, but complete copies are much more scarce,’ says Vincent Belloy, a Books and Manuscripts specialist at Christie’s in Paris. ‘This example is wide-margined, despite being bound, which is always a plus for collectors.’

The sale also includes a signed letter by René Descartes from 1635 and an exceptionally rare complete copy of Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine, the most influential medical textbook of the Islamic world and the standard authority for the teaching and practice of medicine across East and West for centuries. This landmark first edition, with text in Arabic and a Latin title page, was printed in Rome, at the Medici press, in 1593. ‘This is a remarkably well-preserved copy with full margins throughout,’ says Belloy. ‘There are no other known surviving copies with such intact margins.’

The Exceptional Sale (3 November 2026), Maîtres Anciens: Peintures — Dessins — Sculptures (4 November) and Livres rares et Manuscrits (until 5 November, online) are on view during Classic Week at Christie’s in Paris until 4 November