an important Japonesque bronze-vernis mounted ebonised pallissandre vitrine cabinet by Edouard Lièvre Paris, circa 1877-1880

the arched and scrolled pagoda-form cornice with conforming openwork gallery above a central cabinet with rounded corner opening to two shelves and enclosed within open side sections with stepped shelves, raised on a shaped base fitted with two banded fretwork face drawers and flanked by hissing dragons resting on the interlaced initials ED.

See Connaissance des Arts, Hors-série No. 228, Édouard Lièvre, Paris, 2004, pp. 3-19, for the illustration of other creations by Lièvre with comparable decorative attributes to the present cabinet.

 

This dramatic cabinet exemplifies the emerging Japonisme style in vogue during the 1870s and 1880s.  Although European interest in the Far East preceded these decades by centuries, the European involvement in the Opium Wars in China, the opening of Japan’s borders to trade and commerce, and the display of Far Eastern arts in the International Exhibitions of 1862, 1867, and 1876, all added to the resurgence in the appeal of oriental exoticism in the decorative arts at this time. 

The French Japonisme style incorporated both Chinese and Japanese elements but designs at this time were executed in a distinctly Parisian fashion.  The present cabinet is no exeption with its expressive, mythicized salamander, for example, a recognized signature Lièvre mount which is essentially a traditional Chinese salamander with the head of a Japanese dragon in fury. The overall form with its pagoda-shaped roof, ebonized surface and gilt-bronze decoration, all suggest Far Eastern design but, again, the result is unmistakably French Japonisme.
 

Born in Nancy, Lièvre trained as a painter under the French academic painter Thomas Couture before turning his attention to decorative art design. His earliest important work datable with certainty is the grand vase persan designed for the Christofle firm in 1874, and exhibited by the latter at the Paris Expositions of 1878 and also in 1889 and 1900. Lièvre also designed for the illustrious bronzier Ferdinand Barbedienne. Among Lièvre's important clients were actress Sarah Bernhardt, courtesan Louise-Emilie Valtesse de la Bigne, and Albert Vieillard, director of Bordeaux's ceramics factory and an early Japonisme enthusiast. The suite of furniture designed for Vieillard included the Cabinet Japonais now in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Following Lièvre's death, his estate was sold in two auctions in 1887 and 1890. These auction were commended by the press: "It has been a long time since art lovers had the opportunity to see at auction a remarkable collection such as the work of the recently deceased master. His creations will make history..." (see Connaissance des Arts, No. 228, Un créateur inspiré by Roberto Polo, p. 8). It is believed that most of the collection was sold to George and Henri Pannier, owners of the elegant shop, l'Escalier de Cristal. The Pannier brothers produced altered versions of Lièvre's designs, including seven variants of Vieillard's Cabinet Japonais, one of which was sold to Grand Duke Vladimir of Russia and is now in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg.