A Very Fine Pair Of Louis XV Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Marquetry Inlaid Pedestals, Firmly Attributed to Maison Millet.
This elegant pair of Louis XV style pedestals have shaped brèche d’Alep marble tops, above bombe shaped cases with marquetry inlaid ribbon-tied floral branches. The angles are mounted with fine gilt-bronze foliate clasps and the feet terminate in scrolling acanthus-cast sabots.
Established by Théodore Millet in 1853, the Maison Millet operated until 1902 from premises at 11 rue Jacques-Coeur, Paris, before relocating to 23 boulevard Beaumarchais.
Millet produced fine quality meubles de luxe, specialising in meubles et bronzes d’art, genre ancien et moderne, with an accent on the Louis XV and XVI styles. The firm’s work covered a wide range of furniture, including authorised copies of eighteenth-century styles.
Millet won awards in Paris and London including a gold medal at the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle, a Grand Prix in 1900 and three further diplômes d’honneur and four médailles d’or. In 1902 the firm was authorised by the director of the Palace of Versailles to replicate Marie-Antoinette’s celebrated Grand cabinet à bijoux.
Maison Millet was an active client of François Linke.
Mestdagh, Camille & Lécoules, Pierre. L’Ameublement d’Art Français, 1850-1900, Les Editions de L’Amateur, (Paris), 2010.
Meyer, Jonathan. Great Exhibitions – London, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, 1851-1900, Antique Collectors’ Club, (Woodbridge, UK), 2006; pps. 276, 317, 320.
Ledoux – Lebard, Denise. Les Ébénistes du XIXe siècle, Les Editions de L’Amateur, (Paris), 1984; pp. 484-486.
By appointment only.
