100 Emmanuel Alfred BEURDELEY (known as Alfred II) Exceptional set including a four doors cabinet and a chest of drawers with doors decorated with Japanese lacquer panels. The cabinet has a crossbow front, opening with two doors in its upper part and two others in its lower part. It has a total of seven panels in takamaki-e and hiramaki-e lacquer, decorated with seascapes and umbrella pines on a mountain background, with birds in flight. Each panel is delimited by a rocaille frieze underlined by foliage and a varnished frame decorated with crosses. The uprights are provided with arms of light and rocaille falls, enhanced with reserves in lacquer aventurine. Cambered feet. Aleppo breccia marble top with spout. Stamped several times A. BEURDELEY A PARIS, numbered 43 and 3679. End of the 19th century. H : 157 cm - W : 90 cm - D : 43 cm A chest of drawers with doors and a crossbow front, decorated with three panels in takamaki-e and hiramaki-e lacquer, gold and silver, decorated with maritime landscapes and umbrella pines on a mountain background, with birds in flight. Each panel is delimited by a rocaille frieze underlined by foliage and a varnished frame decorated with crosses. The amounts decorated with openwork falls ending in arched feet. Aleppo breccia marble top with a spout. Stamped several times A. BEURDELEY IN PARIS. End of the 19th century. (Small cracks in the front, some stains inside the furniture). H : 87 cm - W : 66 cm - D : 43,5 cm. The set we present is the one reproduced in L'Ameublement d'art français 1850-1900, Camille Mestdagh, Les éditions de l'Amateur, Paris, 2010, page 98 (fig. 92); the secretary reproduced on page 185 (fig. 211), a detail on page 218 (fig. 256); the chest of drawers on page 270 (fig. 316). Provenance: Chicago International Exposition, 1893. Sale A. Beurdeley, 6 to 9 May 1895, Etude Chevallier, Galerie Georges Petit, lots 279 (sold for 7 000 francs) and 280 (sold for 1 800 francs). Acquired by Mr Pierre Lecoules on 28/11/1947. We identify the cabinet we present on the famous black and white photograph of a part of the Beurdeley stand at the Chicago International Exposition of 1893. According to the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Beurdeley's stand was a great success, its chronicler wrote: "it would be difficult for us not to speak of the splendid exhibition of Mr. Beurdeley who sent to Chicago a real museum". Indeed, around the replicas of royal furniture Louis XV and Louis XVI appear creations or reinterpretations of furniture of the eighteenth century. The set we present is part of this trend. The cabinet must be considered as an original creation by Beurdeley - this is the mention in the catalog of the 1895 sale "Création de M. A. Beurdeley". The structure of the piece of furniture, with its console-shaped uprights in the upper part, is original and allows the introduction of arms of light like wall sconces as well as zephyr cherubs, in the round, which seem to want to soar towards the sky. The execution of such a cabinet is a real technical feat because it is not easy to plate lacquer panels on a curved surface. As in the 18th century, Beurdeley frames the panels with friezes in gilded bronze, allowing to mask the joints between lacquer and varnish and uses a decoration of and uses a particularly refined decoration of latticework with quatrefoils to enhance the panels. The chest of drawers is more in keeping with the Louis XV style, despite its crossbow movement. Bibliography : MESTDAGH, Camille, L'Ameublement d'art français 1850-1900, Les éditions de l'Amateur, Paris, 2010. This set can be sold separately.