A FLAME MAHOGANY HAND-CARVED CABINET, CIRCA 1955

A noted sculptor, Alexandre Noll perceived the creation of furniture to be a true art form. Noll worked almost exclusively in wood and in the creation of his organic forms blurred the line between furniture and sculpture. Pierre Joly wrote in a 1966 exhibition catalogue for Galerie Messine in Paris that Noll wanted "to make with wood all that could be made with wood". "And," as his daughter Odile Noll recalls, "it was the shape of the wood that inspired him". Noll's work was exhibited at the Paris Salons and in the Pavilions of the Socété des Artistes Décorateurs in 1921, 1926, 1939, and 1942. His first pieces of furniture were shown at the Compagnie des Arts Français in 1943. Even then, they appealed to a cultural elite. Odile Noll recalls the couturier Paul Poiret ordering some pieces, as well as Henri Bendel commissioning pieces from Noll in the 1940's. "Wood seemed to contain some lost secret for him," Pierre Joly wrote, "You could say that research into this secret took Noll a whole life of uncompleted investigation. You could also say that each step he took in the knowledge of a tree... was a step into the discovery of himself." Noll's vision was a wholly original one and his work can be found in many museums, including the Musée Nationale d'Art Moderne in Paris. This important cabinet and several other examples of sculpted furniture were executed for his own residence Villa des Roses outside of Paris in the suburb of Fontenay-aux-Roses.