mportant lustre Empire 18 lights in chiselled and gilded bronze

Biography

Empire style
Following the example of Georges Alphonse Desmalter who survived around ten or fifteen years at the end of the great era of the First Empire (1804-1814), very clearly, like the Louis XVI style, his predecessor, had Antiquity as a source of inspiration.

The only difference is that the Empire is the strict application of it, while Louis XVI was only its reflection.

The Empire is simple, severe, hardly intimate, neither cordial nor comfortable. The quality of wood used in furniture is of paramount importance: for it to be beautiful, it must be superb. Indeed, it appears massively and with few ornaments. The bronzes for their part, isolated within large wooden panels, must be of excellent composition, well sculpted and chiseled. Percier and Fontaine can be defined as the creators of the official Empire style; They knew how to convey in their drawings this era marked by national pride and warlike enthusiasm. The style of furniture that they developed, characterized by large austere surfaces delimited by straight lines, patterned with golden Greek palms, laurel wreaths or winged victories with fluid drapes, was particularly well suited to the taste of Imperial France.
Later, in 1814, when this exalted period gave way to the restoration of the Bourbons – stripped of their former splendor – and the reign of the bourgeoisie, the style somehow lost its reason for being. However, it continued to be in force, without convincing. The knowledge that we had from Antiquity to the time of the Empire came mainly from the study of classical models represented on bas-reliefs, on vases and wall decorations. Consequently, Percier and Fontaine were aware that it was practically impossible to be faithful in all respects to a rigorous Antiquity, given that it was necessary to adapt what was found to the needs of the time. If the Louis XVI style had already eliminated most of the curved elements, the Empire signed their eradication. The previously circular supports were thus often replaced by elements of square section, such as pilasters. There are still columns on certain pieces, but they are generally detached so as to clearly show the right angles of the furniture. The columns are smooth, cylindrical or slightly conical, with metal capitals and bases. The use of moldings, which gives relief to the simplest piece of furniture, was almost entirely abandoned.
The style is defined by a simple but cleanly cut silhouette. The angles are sharp and precise; any attempt to round an item is frowned upon. The use of heavy bases and pedestals also accentuates the monumentality of the pieces. No other style attaches so much importance to symmetry. The French cabinetmaker recognized the need to decorate the large flat mahogany surfaces with gilded bronze frames representing a series of fantastic creatures. Everywhere there are only winged sphinxes, lions and chimeras of all kinds, the latter often with eagle heads, used as table legs or armrest supports. Swans were even used as armrest supports or as armrests, their bodies forming the base and their wings the armrest. The bronzes are remarkable for the ingenious symmetry of their composition, the clarity of their lines, for the effect they produce on a dark background, but above all for their carving and gilding, of which Thomire is one of the indisputable masters. Almost all bronze motifs are borrowed from the ancient Greco-Roman or Egyptian repertoire.
A multitude of elements are gathered from altars, tombs, wall decorations from Pompeii and even Roman goldwork, such as ancient heads, cornucopias, Jupiter's thunderbolt, Neptune's trident, Mercury's caduceus, Bacchus' thyrsus, helmets, lamps, tripods, craters, amphorae, winged torches and musical instruments. To these motifs, it is also appropriate to add the emblems of victory, war and the Empire, those of the animal world as well as those of the world of flowers, such as the very popular daisy. In terms of seats, many new combinations of lines and shapes were tried; the variety is therefore great. The silhouettes are systematically heavier and more rigid than those in force under Louis XVI. The lines are broad and simple, but hardly always straight, as can be seen in the case of the inverted backrests whose profile resembles an elongated S, the gondola-shaped seats whose backrest is made up of a half-cylinder joining the front legs with a concave curve, and the armrests without console which end in a large open volute resting directly on the top of the square sheathed legs typical of the Empire style. Another popular type is the curule-shaped seat with its gracefully curved X-shaped supports.
The vast majority of seats produced are made of mahogany. Some particularly ambitious specimens are enriched with bronze mounts; others have, in imitation of bronze, elements in gilded wood. Under the Empire, beds presented completely new shapes derived from the antique. Often placed in ornately draped alcoves, they are meant to be viewed from the side. They are called boat beds. Bedside and foot of the bed are made up of backrests of identical dimensions, decorated with a volute or a winding, which widen in the lower part. Empire beds are generally accompanied by a dome-shaped canopy attached to the wall. When it comes to tables, whether massive dining tables or small pedestal tables, the vast majority are circular, most likely in imitation of Greek and Roman tables. The tops are, if possible, in marble. If the feet are not in the shape of the columns with bronze capitals and bases, the tops are supported by an extraordinary constellation of strange figures. The consoles are almost always rectangular, the bottom between the uprights often covered with glass. The Empire dressing table has a rectangular top, most of the time in marble, a belt drawer containing the instruments necessary for washing, and supports either in the shape of a lyre or in an X.
Two light straight uprights, starting from the top, fitted with sconces, accommodate a pivoting mirror. The toilet is generally accompanied by a sink made up of a tripod imitated from the antique supporting a basin. Secretaries with flaps, roll-top desks, joy of the day, chests of drawers, cupboards and bookcases at support height, remained fashionable.
The Empire salon would not, however, be complete without two musical instruments whose popularity was considerable, namely the harp, so typical of the period, and the pianoforte, a rare and expensive novelty with its pedals often in the shape of a lyre. The Empire style, which embraced all of Europe, is the last of the great classical styles - known as the great era of the Jacob cabinetmaking dynasty - and marked the end of the golden age of French cabinetmaking. Added to the disappearance of the corporate system, the introduction around 1814, even to a modest extent, of industrial production further contributed to lowering the qualitative level of artisanal production. The 19th century thus marked, as a consequence of industrialism, the beginning of mass production and initiated the movement of rediscovery and imitation of ancient styles which will have such a lasting impact on the art of cabinetmaking.
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Bronze
At the beginning, there is clay that the hand kneads, that the tool furrows. Then, through the medium of the mold, the power of fire, the fragile sketch will solidify in the hardest and most resistant alloy there is: bronze. This manufacturing process - the alloy of copper and tin - dates back to the third millennium BC: the Bronze Age was an essential stage in the technological and social evolution of mankind. From the outset, this technique made it possible to reproduce weapons, jewelry, figurines and containers of all kinds, spread throughout the Mediterranean basin, in the Near East and even in China - During the Renaissance, the statue appeared, the work of art, unique piece, melted at the request of a great collector.
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