Maison Leleu
Height: 36.42" - Width: 74.80" - Depth: 19.69"
Mahogany with mother of pearl and ebony inlay by Messager and gilt bronze ornaments
An Art Deco ‘Feux d’artifice’ (Fireworks) mahogany and marquetry commode, inlaid with ebony and mother-of-pearl marquetry flowers. Slightly bowed in front, it boasts a stepped top overlaying two cupboards and a beautiful blonde wood interior with ample shelving, and is flanked by faceted, tapered supports with gilt-bronze and sabots.
Marquetry designed by Anatole Kasskoff (1904-1978) and executed by Témoin Messager.
Exhibited:
17e Salon des Arts Ménagers, 1948, Paris. A sideboard in Macassar ebony with the same marquetry pattern was exhibited during this show.
Public collection:
Mobilier National, Paris, France. A very similar sideboard (with a different marquetry pattern), manufactured in 1941 and acquired in 1995, inventory number GME 17238, kept in the collection of Mobilier National.
Bibliography:
- Mobilier & Décoration, April 1948, page 14. For the sideboard shown at the 17e Salon des Arts Ménagers.
- Plaisir de France, January-February, 1949, page 13. For the sideboard in the apartment of Countess Douied de Lonlay, Quai d’Orsay, in Paris.
- La Maison Française, February, 1949, unpaginated. For a sideboard with the same martquetry pattern in a Leleu advertisement.
- Viviane Jutheau, Jules et André Leleu – Vecteurs publishers, Paris, 1989, page 87. For the sideboard at Mobilier National.