charles-guillaume diehl 1811- d. circa 1885 A RARE AND FINE COLD-PAINTED AND ENAMELLED COPPER MOUNTED FRUITWOOD INLAID table PARIS, CIRCA 1878

the cinqfoil-shaped lid decorated with a large pansy, opening to reveal a cushioned interior in blue silk and fitted with a mirror, raised on three intertwined curved legs with the front ones mounted with grasshoppers seated on stylized leaves, one by a beetle, on triform base centering a spray of pansies and a bumble bee, terminating in rounded corners, each surmounted by a turtle, the lockplate inscribed BREVETE SOUVENIR DE L'EXPOSITION/DE 1878/S.C.D.G.

Similar tables are at the Musée d'Orsay, Paris (inv.nr. OAO 1459), and the Museum für Kunstgewerbe, Frankfurt (inv.nr. 13522/6443a).

Margit Bauer e.a., Europaische Möbel von der Gotik bis zum Jugendstil, Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt 1976, no. 246.
Daniel Alcouffe e.a., Le Arti decorative alle grandi esposizioni universali 1851-1900, Milan 1988.
Odile Nouvel-Kammerer, Le Mobilier français. Napoléon III. Années 1880, Paris 1996.
Philippe Thiébaut e.a., Un ensemble Art Nouveau. La donation Rispal, Paris 2006.

Overall in good condition and presentation; wear and minor losses to enamels of copper mounting; overall with the usual minor bruises and scratches consistent with age and use.
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Of German origin, like many 'French' cabinetmakers since the eighteenth century, Charles-Guillaume Diehl (1811-1885) settled in Paris in 1840. He established a large atelier at 39, rue Saint-Sebastien. By 1870 he employed no less than six hundred craftsmen. His trade in cabinet making and fancy goods flourished and Diehl participated in all major international exhibitions during the middle of the nineteenth century, starting with the Great Exhibition in 1851, and frequently being awarded. The list of his deliveries to the Industrial Arts Exhibition in Paris in 1861 gives an idea of his production.
It included 'A Louis XIII drawing room table, with marquetry in natural wood; a console in black wood and plain bronze with its bevelled mirror; a porcelain jardinière with three columns with three bronze dogs and bronze birds above; an arborvitae jardinière with three hoofed feet; a pedestal table with two columns and a porcelain plaque; a writing case in arborvitae and bronze (...) A cellarette with marquetry in the Chinese genre with crystal ornaments; a cupboard in rosewood and porcelain; a cupboard in black wood with marble mosaic panels; a table in black wood with mother-of-pearl and coloured copper marquetry.'

The model for the present table was executed for the Exposition Universelle of 1878 in Paris. In fact, it is not a 'sewing' table in the traditional sense as the lid of the casket is fitted with a mirror. Thus more a vanity table, is could have been used for keeping ribbons and jewelry. However, the cushioned interior may also have served as a pin cushion.

Both composition and style of the table herald the Art Nouveau taste. The delicate marquetry shows the typical botanical repertoire whose realism is accentuated by the naturalistically modelled small animals and foliage applied to the table, meant to enhance the illusionist effect.

Distinctly varying from the aesthetic conventions that dominated the decorative arts at the time, Diehl's table is very much avant-garde for 1878. Borrowings from iconographic sources dear to Japonism and the repertoire of floral and foliate motifs which were to become essential characteristics of Art Nouveau make this table a fine example of the aesthetic transition that occurred around 1870-1880.

For comparison see an almost identical table sold Sotheby`s Amsterdam, Furniture, Clocks & Decorative Arts April 7 2009, lot 408 that sold for 45,150 Euros