A LARGE NAPOLEON III EBONY AND BRASS MARQUETRY CASKET, MAISON VERVELLE, CIRCA 1850

This casket embodies the timeless taste amongst collectors and cabinetmakers alike for Boulle marquetry in the second half of the 19th century. Maison Vervelle was founded in 1804 at 1, rue Neuve-Montorency Feydeau by Jean-François Vervelle and the firm seemed to specialize in small pieces of furniture, such as boxes, cases, liquor cabinets, etc. Jean-François Vervelle was later joined by his son Alexandre-Louis (1800-1856). In the Rapport sur l'Exposition publique des produits de l'industrie française of 1844, Vervelle is described as: 'un artiste de mérite; tous les meubles qui sortent de ses ateliers portent un cachet de bon goût.' (C. Payne, Paris Furniture, the luxury market of the 19th century, 2018, p. 256). In the mid-1850s, the firm was taken over by H. Audot who was himself an exhibitor at the 1851 Great Exhibition in London, and in Paris in 1855.