Cabinet makers

Since settling down, man has felt the need to surround himself with furniture, the silent servants of everyday life, and this affirmation allows us to note its necessity. Furniture has transformed over the course of time, for our needs and uses. The art of beauty enriches its forms and aspects.

The starting point was the chest, a storage unit, a carpenter’s work. From Florence, Venice and the Middle East, arrived the ebony and ivory marquetry work, crowning the cabinetmaker’s reign. The surface of the furniture became the base of artistic creation, painting, and reliefs, marquetry work made from hard rock, scales and copper bronze applications. According to the times, new typologies appeared: commodes, double-bodied dressers, armoires, corner cabinets, secretary desks, chiffoniers, fall front desks (cousin of the secretary desk), cylinder desks, buffets…

Time has passed, but the ‘Cabinet makers’ exhibition confirms the renewed interest in home pieces, and for new research and innovation. In this 21st century debut, the exhibition willingly returns to the excellent quality of the ‘haute-ébénisterie’ (high-end cabinet maker), a search for durable investment, for communicable furniture. The pieces presented in the gallery revisit similar techniques and add bronze, entering further into the realm of sculptural art. They invent the contemporary development baptised ‘collectible design’, produced in limited editions.