Napoleon III coffee table, ca.1880.

Napoleon III coffee table.
Rosewood, with Boulle type marquetry in brass and tortoiseshell simile.
Bronze applications.
With key.
It has slight flaws.
The glass envelope is later.
Measurements: 78 x 120 x 74 cm.

Napoleon III coffee table, of elegant curvilinear outline, supported by cabriole legs topped with small bronze settings. The knees of the legs are ornamented with bronze applications in the form of stipes with female torsos, of marked neoclassical inspiration.

The waist of the piece of furniture is decorated with a succession of bronze medallions showing masks of Greco-Roman air, interspersed along the perimeter. It has a cut-out skirt, whose sinuous profile dialogues with the curvature of the legs and the equally curvilinear contour of the top.

The whole ensemble is richly covered with Boulle-style marquetry, covering the legs, the waist and the top. The cut brass motifs, borders, foliage and floral tracery, contrast with a tortoiseshell simile background, according to the characteristic technique of the 19th century, and practically hide the structural wood, probably ebony or rosewood.