A NAPOLEON III SILVERED-COPPER-MOUNTED EBONISED-OAK CIGAR CABINET ON STAND

A native of Steinbach, Germany, Diehl (d.1885) settled in Paris in 1840. He established a large atelier at 39, rue Saint-Sebastien, where by 1870 he employed no less than six hundred craftsmen. Diehl manufactured all manners of coffrets - liqueur cabinets, games boxes, jewellery caskets - as well as small furnishings - lady's work tables, games tables and meubles de mariage. His production included both standard pieces and deluxe objects, such as the present lot, among them those executed especially for the various international exhibitions. Diehl participated in all the major international expositions during the middle of the 19th century, commencing with the Great Exhibition in 1851. Various pieces by Diehl are now in the collections of the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Musée de l'Ecole de Nancy, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.