Estimate

1.400 - 2.500

Session 1

2 June 2022

Hammer Price

Description

Rosewood and other timbers veneers
Fine marquetry decorative composition of floral arrangements to front and sides
Pink marble top, one door and gilt bronze hardware
Stamped "Maison Krieger"
France, 19th century

Category

Furniture

Maison Krieger

In addition to being one of the most renowned French furniture makers from the second half of the 19th century, Maison Krieger was also the reminiscence of the French ebeniste Antoine Krieger’s vision who, in 1826, set up his business in association with his brother Nicolas Krieger, in the Paris area of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, specifically at number 17, Rue de Saint-Nicolas. After various moves and premise changes, by 1850, and already using the mark Antoine Krieger & Cie., the company was again registered in the same street but at number 76. With rightful presence in the various great industrial exhibitions, held both in Europe and in the United States in the second half of the 19th century, his work particularly stood out at the 1851 Great Exhibition in London, where Krieger was awarded a 2nd class medal, and again in 1853, in the New York Exhibition, where he presented a now iconic piece of furniture with carved medallions, depicting medieval deer hunting and falconry scenes. Following from Antoine Krieger death in 1856, his firm and workshop were inherited by his sons in law, Claude-Julien Cosse, and Henry Racault who, together, maintained and developed his vision and artistic purpose. Set as a cooperative, the company changed its name and stamp to Cosse-Racault et Cie. (Ledoux-Lebard 1984, 390). Four years later it registers a new name and stamp mark, once again recovering the founder’s name and becoming A. Krieger et Cie. or A. Racault et Cie. From 1880 onwards the furniture stamps will once again be changed to Damon et Cie. as well as “M(ais)on Krieger Ameublement Paris” (LedouxLebard 1984). Pieces of furniture produced in the first decade of the 20th century feature the mark DUVIVIER PARIS 77 FG-ST ANTOINE, associated to Maison Krieger, a detail evidencing the fact that the company was then operating from premises at number 77 of Faubourg Saint-Antoine. Being one of the most successful furniture manufacturers in 1800s Paris, Krieger created and exhibited furniture in the most varied styles. In their store customers could find high quality copies of furniture from the previous century, particularly much in demand reinterpretations of the Louis XV and Louis XVI stiles. Simultaneously, Maison Krieger did also develop important contemporary pieces that adopted a particular type of hybridism with the past, but reflecting the new Napoleon III taste, such as is the case of the cabinet we are presenting for sale at Veritas. In production up to the early 1920s, Maison Krieger’s furniture was also present at the 1900 Paris Universal Exhibition, in which the ebeniste François Linke (1855-1946) displayed the excellence of his production as can be assessed by the exceptional pieces designed for that event, now at the Casa-Museu Medeiros e Almeida in Lisbon (Inv. FMA9).

Tiago Franco Rodrigues

Literature: Christopher Payne, 19th Century European Furniture, Antique Collectors´Club, 1985