Style Japonism, Chinoiserie / Ref.11341

Cyrille RUFFIER DES AIMES (1844-1916) (attributed to) - Japanese style fire screen with dragons

Carved natural wood fireplace screen decorated with a large dragon and flowering branches, mother-of-pearl marquetry and gilded bronze dragons. Rest on clawed feet.
Modern upholstery in the style of Asia.

Cyrille Ruffier des Aimes was born on January 29, 1844 in Savoy and died on April 13, 1916. A talented cabinet-maker, he opened his own art cabinetry in Paris in 1881, "Ruffier des Aimes & Cie" . His workshops and sales stores are located near the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. In 1887 his factory employed fifty workers. Four years later, there was eighty.
First manufacturer of style furniture (Henry II, Louis XIV, XV, XVI ...), he specializes little by little in the furniture "of fantasy", in Japanese and Chinese tastes face with the craze for Japanism. His display cabinet, fireplace screens, desks and pedestals are thus hailed by critics of that time: "(...) it is especially his fancy furniture that caught our attention. Here, originality breaks out on all sides; everything is created, everything is unique; the drawings and models are all executed entirely in the workshops of the house, and when we buy one of these pieces of furniture, we are sure to have a work of art of which there is no other copy, which will not be found neither in any cabinetry nor in any apartment. ". ("Le panthéon de l’industrie", No. 655, September 11, 1887).
He exhibited and received several awards at exhibitions of the Central Union of Decorative Arts in 1887, 1888, 1889 and 1890. At the Labor Exhibition of 1891, he was awarded the 2nd prize for artistic cabinetmaking and a vermeil medal for his furniture.
The furniture of Ruffier des Aimes, far from being all stamped, are to be compared with the works of Gabriel Viardot of whom he was contemporary.