Gabriel Viardot - Pair Of Meridiennes

A pair of carved and stained wood meridiennes, executed inthe japanisme taste. Each seat features an undulating, openwork backrest withsinuous chinese inspired fretwork evoking traditionnal Far-eastern latticewindow screens, surmounted by scrolled uprights terminating in carved dragonheads. The loose cushions are upholstered in rasberry-pink silk embroideredwith flowering branches and birds. The richely pierced apron rests on fourcabriole legs terminating in ball-and-claw.  
Biography  
Gabriel Viardotcareer began as a wood carver and he produced small furniture, sculpturallycarved with naturalistic motifs and animals. In the 1855 Exposition Universellein Paris, his finely sculpted objects were well received. However, with theincreasing importation of similarly produced Swiss and German articles, hefound less opportunity for these and decided to innovate. G. Viardot succeededto his father's business in 1861 installed rue Rambuteau in Paris. Around 1870he turned to the idea of producing « Meubles genre Chinois et Japonais ».The taste in Europe for exotic furniture, incorporating sometimes authenticChinese or Japanese objects was well established. But Viardot early designedhis own models enriched with ivory, mother-of-pearl and beautiful gilt-bronzemounts. After having won four medals at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1867,Viardot was awarded a silver medal at the 1878 Universal Exhibition in Paris.He was also awarded gold medals several times : Universal Exhibitions inAnvers (Belgium) in 1884, and again in Paris in 1889 and 1900. A contemporarycommentator notes that he had a workshop employing approximately 100 men, bothsculptors and cabinet-makers with another 25 to 30 outside contract workers.« l'Escalier de Cristal », the famous Parisian offering luxuriousfurniture got the exclusivity to use their own stamp on six Viardot’s furnituremodels.