Attributed to Gabriel Viardot

Attributed to GABRIEL VIARDOT (Paris, 1830-1906).
Furniture-vitrine, ca.1890.
In stained mahogany wood and bronze applications.
Measurements: 192 x 110 x 40 cm.
Cabinet-closet whose design is attributed to the French cabinetmaker Gabriel Viardot. It alternates spaces with cupboard in its light structure, by means of a distribution of hollows and fillings that breaks the classic symmetry at the same time that it is inspired by chinoiseries with the bronze dragons and the crests that decorate each shelf. It responds to a design akin to contemporary modernism but imbued with orientalist echoes that Viardot freely reinterprets. He takes pagoda architecture as a reference to resolve the eave crest. The openwork tracery motif is repeated in the corners of the shelves.
Gabriel Viardot was a cabinetmaker specializing in the production of "Chinese-Japanese" furniture. He began his career as a wood carver in 1849, when he sent some pieces of naturalistic decorative furniture to the horticultural exhibition. In 1853, he had a factory and a furniture store located in Rambuteau. At this time, Gabriel Viardot worked with his brother Louis Gustave under the name "Viardot Brothers and Co." In 1860, he opened his own workshop, "G. Viardot" in Grand-Chantier. At the 1867 World's Fair he won four medals. His furniture was produced thanks to lacquered and carved panels sent directly from China or Japan and decorated with mother-of-pearl inlays from Tonkin. Of the bronze ornaments he made all the designs by hand. Over the years, his success continued to grow, especially at the Nice exhibitions and the eighth exhibition of the Central Union of Decorative Arts in 1884. In 1885, he participated in the Antwerp World Exhibition, where he won a gold medal. In 1889, he participated in the World Exhibition held in Paris and received a gold medal. He obtained the same award at the World Fair of 1900.