Émile Gallé

ÉMILE GALLÉ, (Nancy, France, 1846 - 1904).
Game table "Chardons", 1890-1900.
Mahogany and walnut wood, with marquetry.
With marking.
Measurements: 77 x 53.5 x 56.5 cm (closed); 74 x 107.5 x 56.5 cm (open).

Game table by Émile Gallé, a very special piece for its quality, its beauty and the elegance of its design, stylized, solid and functional at the same time. Built mostly in mahogany and walnut wood, it is decorated with a marquetry combining different fruit woods abundant in the Nancy region.
It stands on four cabriole-inspired legs, refined in their forms, circular in cross-section, open outwards at the bottom and decorated with grooves on the shaft. A fine molding located in the upper area separates the leg itself from the section that supports the waist, composed of four skirts of cut profile delineated by sinuous moldings, typically modernist. A drawer is housed in the front of the table, with no handle to interrupt the decoration. These skirts, like the tabletop, are decorated with classic floral marquetry, a technique that consists of embedding individually cut pieces of different woods in the base, forming a design that plays with the contrast of tones and grains. These floral compositions, especially on the board, show us the most identifying characteristics of Gallé's designs: naturalistic, open and asymmetrical compositions, of Japanese influence, with the floral motifs captured at a large size, as if through a macro.
The tabletop is folding: square when closed, it has two folding wings, hinged by long Gothic-inspired hinges, which allow the tabletop to be enlarged to double the surface area. With the two wings closed, we see a marquetry composition with thistle flowers, emblem of the city of Nancy, Gallé's birthplace, where he worked all his life. Once the board is unfolded, we see a large unitary composition covering the entire surface, again with thistle flowers, highlighted against a background of expressive veining.
Émile Gallé began his career working for his father, who owned a glass and ceramics factory, making designs with floral and heraldic motifs. Very interested in botany, he studied it in depth during his youth, alternating with drawing classes. Between 1862 and 1864, at his father's request, he traveled through Italy, England and Germany, becoming interested in the applied arts but also in subjects that he would later reflect in his works, such as music, philosophy and nature. On his return, he settled in Meisenthal, where the glass furnaces of his family were, in order to fully learn the craft of glassmaker. He also traveled to London and Paris to see the collections of their museums. In 1874 he took over his father's factory, and soon achieved great international success, winning awards at international exhibitions and selling works to major collections and museums. Today, pieces made by Émile Gallé can be seen in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Orsay Museum in Paris, the Brohan Museum in Berlin and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, among many others.