Lot Essay
Image Caption: The present lot in situ in Madame Bertholet's bedroom, 1933.
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A BED 'AUX NENUPHARS', 1932
Details
JEAN DUNAND (1877-1942)
A BED 'AUX NENUPHARS', 1932
lacquered wood with gold lacquer highlights, inlaid with mother-of-pearl
60 in. (152.5 cm.) high (headboard), 26 1/8 in. (66.5 cm.) high (footboard), 73 7/8 in. (187.8 cm.) wide, 86 in. (218.5 cm.) long
signed in lacquer Jean Dunand
A BED 'AUX NENUPHARS', 1932
lacquered wood with gold lacquer highlights, inlaid with mother-of-pearl
60 in. (152.5 cm.) high (headboard), 26 1/8 in. (66.5 cm.) high (footboard), 73 7/8 in. (187.8 cm.) wide, 86 in. (218.5 cm.) long
signed in lacquer Jean Dunand
Provenance
Commissioned by Mme. Philippe Bertholet, wife of the director of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, circa 1930;
Jean-Jacques Baumé, Paris;
Christie's, New York, 1 October 1983, lot 220.
Jean-Jacques Baumé, Paris;
Christie's, New York, 1 October 1983, lot 220.
Literature
E. Jaloux, 'La Maison d'un Diplomate', L'Illustration, 22 July 1933, pp. 417-420.;
Trouvailles, Paris, no. 2, October - November 1976, p. 54;
V. Arwas, Art Deco, New York, 1980, p. 83;
A. Duncan, Art Deco Furniture, New York, 1984, pl. 16;
Exhibition catalogue, Jean Dunand, DeLorenzo Gallery, New York, 1985, p. 41;
F. Marcilhac, Jean Dunand: His Life and Works, New York, 1991, pp. 83, 256, cat. no. 515.
Trouvailles, Paris, no. 2, October - November 1976, p. 54;
V. Arwas, Art Deco, New York, 1980, p. 83;
A. Duncan, Art Deco Furniture, New York, 1984, pl. 16;
Exhibition catalogue, Jean Dunand, DeLorenzo Gallery, New York, 1985, p. 41;
F. Marcilhac, Jean Dunand: His Life and Works, New York, 1991, pp. 83, 256, cat. no. 515.
Exhibited
New York, DeLorenzo Gallery, Jean Dunand, May - June 1985.
Further details
This bed - with its lily-pond theme and fine detail of bubbles and stylized Japanese fish, exquisitely rendered in high-relief mother-of-pearl and lacquer - was created by Jean Dunand for Ambassador Philippe Bertholet and his wife, who were among his most distinguished clients. It was situated in Madame Bertholet's boudoir on the first-floor of their Paris house. While the upper floors of the Bertholet's home were somewhat conservative in feel, with eighteenth-century French furniture and a selection or Far-Eastern furnishings, Madame Bertholet's boudoir, with a décor by Jean-Michel Frank, works by Dunand and a terracotta bas-relief by Gustave Miklos, struck an emphatically modern contrast.
Dunand created two beds of this form. The other was decorated with fish and sea fronds (Marcilhac cat. no. 514.) Only three further beds are recorded in the catalogue raisonné, one without illustration (cat. no. 513), one of rectilinear form, designed by Serge Rovinsky for Nadine Oxnard and lacquered in Dunand's studio in 1928 (cat. no. 516), and one of gilded spruce decorated with floral motifs (cat. no. 1128).
Dunand created two beds of this form. The other was decorated with fish and sea fronds (Marcilhac cat. no. 514.) Only three further beds are recorded in the catalogue raisonné, one without illustration (cat. no. 513), one of rectilinear form, designed by Serge Rovinsky for Nadine Oxnard and lacquered in Dunand's studio in 1928 (cat. no. 516), and one of gilded spruce decorated with floral motifs (cat. no. 1128).
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