Boulle marquetry display and bookcase, Maison Delafontaine à Paris (Napoleo

Remarkable Boulle marquetry display and bookcase with red tortoiseshell on a blackened pearwood veneer. Very beautiful bronzes with original gilding signed at the back for the cabinetmaker and bronzier Delafontaine. Very nice work of the Napoleon III period admirably restored with the traditional varnish technique.

Size : H 247cm x W 132cm x D 46cm

Maison Delafontaine in Paris, late 19th century.

Lit : DELAFONTAINE Founded in the 18th century by Jean-Baptiste Delafontaine (1750-1820), wass a remarkable bronze factory directed from 1818 to 1840 by Pierre-Maximilien Delafontaine (1777-1860). Among the many achievements of this period, his collaboration with the famous cabinetmaker Jacob-Desmalter is particularly noteworthy. The bronzes of the Chapelle expiatoire or the bronze decorations of the Palais du Louvre for King Charles X. He was also responsible for ornamentation work in the royal palaces. Some of the lock escutcheons in the Louvre Palace were made by him. It was with his son Auguste-Maximilien Delafontaine (1813-1892) that this firm, which he managed from 1840 to 1883, experienced its most productive period with the creation, for example, of the doors and candelabras “à l’antique” for the Pantheon, but also with his brilliant activity as a founder and publisher of art by sculptors such as Barye, Pradier, Duret, Geoffroy-Dechaume and Schoenewerk. They were specialized in the Boulle technique. Continuing his activities, his son Henri-Maximilien succeeded him in 1884 before retiring from the business in 1905.