A Louis XV Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Mahogany Stand, By Maison Mottheau et Fils.
Stamped ‘EM’ to reverse of bronze mounts.
The shaped breche violette marble top with gilt-bronze rim above a shaped frieze with four curvilinear supports headed by espagnolettes united by a shelf and under tier, raised on short cabriole legs with acanthus sabots.
France, Circa 1900.
The bronzier Maison Mottheau & Fils is famous for their ‘torchère lumineuse’ exhibited at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle; an ambitious and monumental tour de force executed in gilt-bronze and onyx from a design by Eugène-Frédéric Piat. As a bronzemaker, Mottheau specialised primarily in lighting fixtures, a category in which they flourished with the advent of electricity, but also supplied a wide array of functional decorations, including gilt-bronze mountings for furniture and clock cases. At the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle, the firm displayed pieces in the Louis XVI and Art Nouveau styles and was praised as one of the foremost exhibitors, making full use of the new technology of electricity: ‘The work shown is artistic and interesting, and adds, if possible, to the reputation of this already famous house. […] The French Section shows many examples of fine work applied under the new conditions, but we doubt if a more complete success is to be recorded to the credit of any exhibitor than can be conceded to Messuers Mottheau et Fils’ (The Art Journal, The Paris Exhibition 1900 – An Illustrated Record of its Art, Architecture and Industries, London, 1900, p. 155).
The Art Journal, ‘The Paris Exhibition 1900 – An Illustrated Record of its Art, Architecture and Industries’, London, 1900, p. 155.
Meyer, Jonathan. ‘Great Exhibitions – London, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, 1851-1900′, Antique Collectors’ Club, (Woodbridge, UK), 2006; pps. 290, 318 pl. J72.
By appointment only.
