Object Description
A Fine Louis XV Style Gilt-Bronze and Vernis Martin Mounted Side Cabinet, Attributed to Emmanuel Zwiener.
This cabinet has a shaped pink and red mottled marble top above an acanthus cast frieze flanked by female herm figures to the angles, below is a central cupboard door inset with a finely painted vernis Martin panel depicting Perseus, on Pegasus, Hastening to the Rescue of Andromeda, and enclosing two shelves; the shaped apron centred by a finely cast Bacchic mask, the legs terminating in acanthus and lion paw sabots.
Marked ‘ZN’ to the back of the gilt-bronze mountings for Emmanuel Zwiener and stencilled to the reverse ‘KRIEGER PARIS / FAUBOURG ST. ANTOINE’
France, Circa 1890.
Two other examples of this important model of cabinet or ‘meuble à hauteur d’appui’ are recorded to be stamped E. Zwiener and ‘ZN’ to the back of the gilt-bronze mountings for Emmanuel Zwiener of Paris. This example is stencilled to the reverse ‘KRIEGER PARIS / FAUBOURG ST. ANTOINE’ which indicates that it was made by Emmanuel Zwiener for Maison Krieger who is known to have retailed furniture made by Zwiener and his contemporary François Linke. The angle mounts of busts with laced bodices and ruffle-collars, a reference to the work of the celebrated Régence ébéniste and sculpteur, Charles Cressent, are a known Zwiener model (see J. Meiner, ‘Berliner Belle Epoque’, 2014, Abb. 189 p.130).
The technique of vernis Martin was perfected by four brothers who produced what is considered to be the finest form of European japanning, lending their name to what later became a generic term. The elder brother, Guillaume (d. 1749) and Étienne-Simon (d. 1770) were granted a monopoly for producing imitations of Chinese and Japanese lacquer in 1730, which was renewed in 1744. Vernis Martin was developed from a varnish called cipolin. It is remarkably lustrous and fine in texture and produces an array of colours ranging from greys, greens and blues and enhanced by gold dust beneath the surface producing a sparkling finish. This lengthy process requires the application of as many as forty layers to be applied to the surface, each of which is then polished to result in the required depth and finish.
See also another example in the collection of Adrian Alan (Ref No : B75010) and another illustrated in C. Payne, ‘Paris Furniture: The Luxury Market of the 19th Century’, 2018, p. 563.