This description has been translated and may not be completely accurate. Click here to see the original
French work, Napoleon III period
Superb middle table all in marquetry and gilded bronze stamped by the famous master cabinetmaker "Charles-Guillaume Diehl" (1811-1885)
Decorated with numerous very beautiful gilded bronze throughout the piece of furniture, scraps, sabots, ingot molds, frames.........with high quality carving and gilding.
Opening a large drawer on the front, stamped on the lock "Diehl Paris 19 rue Saint Michel le Comte", furniture of very high quality of execution entirely from the period having not undergone any restorations.
Middle table furniture or so-called central pedestal table that can be used as a desk, game table or other.
Charles-Guillaume Diehl, born July 28, 1811 in Steinbach (Länder of Hesse in Germany) and died in 1885 in Chessy (Seine-et-Marne, France), is a cabinetmaker, specializing in the creation of small furniture. He was naturalized French in 1872.
He established himself in Paris in 1840. He was listed in 1850 as a table manufacturer.
On February 4, 1854, he filed a patent application with the Seine department secretariat “for a mechanical arrangement of mirrors applicable to various pieces of furniture, which allows a person to completely see his or her costume.” The patent was granted to him on December 2, 18541. He completed this patent in 1855 and obtained a “certificate of addition” (addition made to an original patent of invention covering an invention) for improvements in the manufacture of tables;
He was selected to exhibit two pieces of furniture during the Universal Exhibition of 1855: a table and a psyche. This uses the patent described previously. The criticism of his production is thus made: "Diehl is a very ingenious worker; his mechanical psyche deserves the attention of ladies, who can, with his help, take in at a glance the whole of their toilet. He also exhibits a marquetry table, which expands and can form a shelf with three boards"3. He won the bronze medal.
During the Universal Exhibition of 1867 two pieces of furniture were presented: “It is a medallion and a table.
The medaler is a larger piece of furniture than those he is used to producing since it measures 2.40 m. height, 1.50 m. wide and 60 centimeters deep. This piece of furniture is today at the Orsay Museum Jules Mesnard describes the piece of furniture both in its artistic aspect and in its historical significance: “The central bas-relief represents Mérovée on his chariot, conqueror of Attila, in Châlon-sur-Marne It is due to Mr. Frémier, one of our masters... The composition is excellent. The chosen episode alone sums up the whole event. It is Mérovée, the winner of the Huns. which founded its dynasty, it is a great nation to come, it is France which founded its dynasty. The manufacture of the piece of furniture is very careful. The fifty drawers in walnut and ivory, engraved and sculpted, which the medallion contains. indiscriminately adapt to each box. This is a technical difficulty which indicates the perfection of the work.
The table would, according to Mesnard, be more in the efflorescent Byzantine style than in the Greek style. She is 1.85 m tall. long, 1.05 m. wide and 90 centimeters high.
These two works give an idea of the creations of C.G. Diehl. But he manufactures furniture of all kinds, and especially small fancy furniture, such as pin boxes, glove boxes, tea boxes, game boxes, liquor cabinets, shelves, pedestal tables, work tables, plant pots. It uses rare woods such as rosewood, thuja and burl wood in veneer or solid wood. He regularly decorated his furniture with light floral marquetry on dark furniture, romantic decorations particularly appreciated by the bourgeoisie of the time;
Ref: 61K1OO761C