A FRENCH 'JAPONISME' ORMOLU AND CHINESE CLOISONNE ENAMEL-MOUNTED MAHOGANY ETAGERE-CABINET

Gabriel-Frédéric Viardot (1830-1906) is largely remembered for his particular version of Asian style furniture, and was advertised as a 'créateur des meubles dans le genre chinois et japonais'. After Viardot became proprietor of his family firm in 1861, Viardot Frères et Cie moved to various addresses in Paris before settling at 36 rue Amelot in 1878, where they remained until the turn of the century.
Originally producing Renaissance style objets d'art, Viardot seized on opportunities afforded by industrialization to indulge a growing market, hungry to consume watered-down Western interpretations of the exotic. The Viardot style was influenced by Japanese prototypes, but was chiefly inspired by the large quantity of decorative items being imported into Paris from China and Hanoi, in the colony of French Indo-China (now Vietnam and Cambodia).
Viardot exhibited at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851 and was both a participant and a jury member for the 1867, 1878 and the 1889 International Exhibitions in Paris. He was awarded four medals from the Paris Exposition in 1867 and received a silver medal at the 1878 Paris Exposition. His major success was at the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle where the firm was awarded a gold medal and the jury reported 'Il nous presente ses meubles japonais toujours fort interessants tant par leur tonalité que par leur parfaite execution'.