A FRENCH 'JAPONISME' LACQUERED-BRONZE-MOUNTED MAHOGANY VITRINE-CABINET

Gabriel Viardot is largely remembered as a 'créateur des meubles dans le genre chinois et japonais'. 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). After Viardot became proprietor of his family firm in 1861, Viardot Frères 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. Viardot exhibited at the International Exhibitions and 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 parfaite execution".