Honoré Dufin: Renaissance Style Desk

Beautiful double-sided desk with carved and molded walnut pedestals. It opens with nine front drawers, two doors and three drawers on the back. Top with molded edges, belt with modillions, oves and feathered circles. Boxes with fleur-de-lys, clovers, tables, lion's muzzles and columns ringed with laurel. Sides with panels molded with feathered eggs. Low cornices with corbin beaks, cavets and inverted ogees, loaf feet. High quality walnut and workmanship. Signed Dufin. Around 1880. Height 77 cm, length 149 cm, depth 89 cm. Delivery possible. Honoré Dufin has been based in Lyon as a cabinetmaker since 1876, first at 8 rue Saint-Dominique, then 4 rue des Célestins, from 1880 to 1884, finally 49 rue de la République in 1892. He received a Silver Medal during the Universal Exhibition of Lyon in 1872 then a Bronze Medal during the Universal Exhibition of Paris of 1878. He provided three plates of the “Theoretical and practical treatise on cabinetmaking according to Roubo…” from the edition of 1884: pl. 55 Renaissance Buffet, pl. 97 Credence Henri IV et pl. 98 Small Buffet Furniture (Francois I). Dufin had acquired an extraordinary reputation in the manufacture of stylish furniture. Among other things, he attached great importance to the care given to both the structure of the furniture and its decorative finish. Walnut is then one of his favorite woods, allowing him to build a resistant piece of furniture, as well as to have a fine sculpture and a beautiful color. Passionate about statuary art, Honoré Dufin's will in 1892 provided for the creation of a prize, to be awarded each year to the most deserving student of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Sculpture section. The Fabius Frères Collection had two pieces of furniture by Dufin: a center table and a two-body piece of furniture, both in carved walnut (Sotheby's).