BY GABRIEL VIARDOT, PARIS, LATE 19TH CENTURY

Gabriel Viardot is largely remembered for the distinctive Orientalist furniture he created, and was advertised as a 'créateur des meubles dans le genre chinois et japonais'. After Viardot became proprietor of his family firm in 1861, Viardot Fréres et Cie moved to various addresses in Paris before settling at 36 rue Amelot in 1878, where they remained until the turn of the century. The Viardot style was influenced by Japanese prototypes, but was chiefly inspired by the large quantity of decorative items being imported into Paris from China and Hanoi, in the colony of French Indo-China (now Vietnam and Cambodia). Viardot exhibited at the Crystal Palace in 1851 and was both a participant and a jury member for the 1867, 1878 and the 1889 International Exhibitions in Paris. He was awarded four medals from the Paris Exposition in 1867 and received a silver medal at the 1878 Paris Exposition. His major success was at the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle where the firm was awarded a gold medal and the jury reported 'Il nous presente ses meubles japonais toujours fort interessants tant par leur tonalité que par leur parfait execution'.