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Cabinet

Cabinet

  • Place of origin:

    Paris, France (made)

  • Date:

    1861-1867 (made)

  • Artist/Maker:

    Hilaire (designer)
    Pasti (designer)
    Néviller (designer)
    Firm of Henri-Auguste Fourdinois (maker)

  • Materials and Techniques:

    Ebony, partly veneered on oak, with inlay and carved decoration in box, lime, holly, pear, walnut, mahogany and hardstones, and marble plaques

  • Museum number:

    721:1 to 25-1869

  • Gallery location:

    Europe & America 1800-1900, room 101, case 5

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The firm of Fourdinois first exhibited this cabinet at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1867. Several reviews hailed it as the masterpiece of the exhibition, and it was awarded the Grand Prix. The newly founded South Kensington Museum (later the V&A) bought the cabinet for £2,750. This was a much higher price than the curators had paid for most other antique pieces. What attracted them was its exceptional craftsmanship. They hoped it would inspire British designers and makers. The makers used a new type of inlay on this cabinet, where the inlaid wood was also finely carved.

Physical description

Cabinet on stand, veneered in ebony and inlaid with carved panels of box, limewood, holly, pear, walnut and mahogany and with panels of hardstone, and set with carved figures in box

Place of Origin

Paris, France (made)

Date

1861-1867 (made)

Artist/maker

Hilaire (designer)
Pasti (designer)
Néviller (designer)
Firm of Henri-Auguste Fourdinois (maker)

Materials and Techniques

Ebony, partly veneered on oak, with inlay and carved decoration in box, lime, holly, pear, walnut, mahogany and hardstones, and marble plaques

Dimensions

Height: 249 cm, Width: 155 cm, Depth: 52 cm

Object history note

Purchased from the 1867 Paris Exhibition

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

Wilk, Christopher, ed. . Western Furniture 1350 to the Present Day. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1996. 230p., ill. ISBN 085667463X.

Exhibition History

Precious: Objects and Changing Values (The Millennium Galleries, Sheffield 02/04/2001-24/06/2001)
A Grand Design - The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum (Victoria and Albert Museum 12/10/1999-16/01/2000)

Labels and date

CABINET

Manufacturer: Henri-Auguste Fourdinois (1830-1907)
Paris: 1861-1867
Ebony with solid inlay of box, lime, holly, pear, walnut, mahogany and marble plaques

721-1869

'American and European Art and Design 1800-1900'

This extraordinary cabinet was purchased from the Paris 1867 Exhibition for £2,750. Henri-Auguste Fourdinois, who took over his father's celebrated firm in that year, developed the technique of solid inlay in which the carved ornaments are not applied but extend throught the full thickness of their ebony background. The figures were designed by Hilaire and Pasti, the ornaments by Neviller. The cabinet was awarded the Grand Prix of the Exhibition. [1987-2006]
Europe and America 1800-1900, room 101

CABINET ON STAND
1861-7
Shown at the International Exhibition, Paris, 1867

France, Paris; designed and made in the workshops of Henri-Auguste Fourdinois; figures designed by Hilaire and Pasti; ornaments designed by Neviller

Ebony, with solid inlay of box, lime, holly, pear, walnut and mahogany; plaques of marble

Bought at the exhibition for £2750
Museum no. 721-1869

The exhibition jury awarded this cabinet the Grand Prix, in recognition of its superlative technical quality. Henri-Auguste Fourdinois had invented a new inlay technique, in which different woods extended right through the panels so they could be deeply carved. The Museum paid an enormous sum for the cabinet, much more than it had yet paid for any antique exhibit. [2006]

Materials

Oak; Marble; Walnut; Mahogany; Ebony; Boxwood; Limewood; Pearwood; Holly

Techniques

Carving; Inlaid; Veneered

Subjects depicted

Scrolling foliage; Architecture; Columns; Minerva; Peace; Painting; Wisdom

Categories

Furniture; Black History

Collection code

FWK

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Qr_O59326
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