Henry Dasson
A Fine Louis XV Style Lacquered Tray-Top Table
£12,000
A Fine Louis XV Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Bois Satiné and Lacquered Tray-Top Table, by Henry Dasson. This elegant table is inset to the top with a...
Dimensions
Height: 76 cm (30 in)Width: 47 cm (19 in)
Depth: 36 cm (15 in)
Description
A Fine Louis XV Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Bois Satiné and Lacquered Tray-Top Table, by Henry Dasson.
This elegant table is inset to the top with a lacquered tray decorated with a scene of fortune and abundance within a neoclassical ornamented scalloped boarder. The tray Italian, probably Venetian, and dating to the late 18th century. Surrounded by a cross-banded boarder and gilt-bronze frame. The frieze with gilt-bronze mountings and fronted by a drawer. On cabriole legs cornered by rocaille clasps running to sabots.
France, Circa 1870.
Date
1870
Origin
France
Medium
Bois Satiné & Lacquer
Signature
Stamped 'HENRY DASSON'
Henry Dasson (1825-1896) was one of the finest makers of gilt-bronze mounted furniture in the nineteenth century. Unlike other cabinetmakers of this time Dasson started his career as a bronze sculptor, and for this reason one of the characteristics of his work is the great quality of his bronze and more precisely of the chiselling.
With a workshop established in Paris at 106 rue Vieille-du-Temple, he specialised predominantly in the production of Louis XIV, XV and XVI style furniture using the very finest gilt-bronze mounts.
In 1871, he purchased the flourishing business and remaining stock of Charles-Guillaume Winckelsen, who had established a reputation for furniture of the highest quality. Dasson almost certainly inherited the craft of ciseleur from Winckelsen.
At the 1878 and 1889 Paris Expositions Universelles Dasson exhibited a number of pieces in the Louis XV and XVI styles, as well as pieces of his own modified eighteenth-century design. The exhibits in 1878 included a table entirely in gilt-bronze, purchased by Lord Dudley. His copy of the celebrated Bureau du Roi sold at the same exhibition to Lady Ashburton.
Dasson ceased production in 1894, and at this time held a sale of his models, listed in Catalogues of drawings for art bronzes, style furniture and important decoration with rights of reproduction by Henry Dasson et Cie, manufacturer of art bronzes and cabinetmaker as a result of cessation of production..’ The records from this sale show that Paul Sormani, as well as Joseph Emmanuel Zweiner, Maison Millet and Beurdeley acquired certain drawings and models by Dasson.
Jonathan Meyer illustrates a number of exceptional items exhibited by Dasson in 1889 in his book on the Great Exhibitions.
Bibliography:
Mestdagh, Camille & Lécoules, Pierre. L’Ameublement d’art français : 1850-1900, Les Editions de l’Amateur, (Paris), 2010.
Ledoux-Lebard, Denise. Les Ebénistes du XIXeme siècle, Les Editions de l’Amateur, (Paris), 1984; pp. 146 – 151.0
Meyer, Jonathan. ‘Great Exhibitions – London, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, 1851-1900′, Antique Collectors’ Club, (Woodbridge, UK), 2006; p. 269, pls. H7, H8, H10: p. 270, pl, H12.