Style Other / Ref.13660

GUERET Frères - Splendid oak chest richly sculpted with a forest animal decoration

This splendid chest was made of oak by the Guéret brothers in the 1870. The sculpture work is truly remarkable and shows the virtuosity of its creator who makes a decor on the forest theme in which we can see a fox, a pheasant or even a bird with its wings spread out on the top, in a rocks and tree decoration. Denis-Désiré (born in 1828) and Onésime Guéret (born in 1830) create a factory of sculpted furniture in 1852 or 1853 at 7 rue Buffault in Paris under the name "Guéret Frères". Ten years later, the store is moved at 5 boulevard de la Madeleine, then at 216 rue Lafayette where it stays until the definitive closure. From 1877, the factory is managed by the youngest brother and becomes "Guéret Jeune et Cie", its activity continues until the end of the 19 th century.The Guéret brothers participate to each exhibitions from 1855, win a lot of rewards and acritic always eulogistic,like the one published in the Art Journal, about the InternationalExhibition of 1878 : “M. Gueret, a renowned cabinet-maker of Paris, contributed to theExhibition a large number of admirable works, designed with rare Art power, and executed with refined delicacy, in various woods – generally in satin-wood inlaid – all possessing thorough artistic merit”. The excellency of their work for the sculpted furniture making,often rewarded, increases their orders book. Rich bourgeois but also renowned personalities such as the Duke of Aumale, Napoléon III or even Mr Bryce, buyers of these sumptuous furniture, made some orders. Mr Bryce, for instance, ordered the realization of his whole furniture for his mansion on avenue Gabriel in Paris.