JOSEPH CREMER (Luxembourg, 1811 - Paris, après 1878)

BUREAU PLAT D'APPARAT EN MARQUETERIE BOULLE Paris, 1859 Ebony veneer and blackened wood on oak frame, pewter and brass inlay; gilt bronze; red-brown leather H. 73,5 cm, W. 176 cm, D. 96 cm Partial invoice of rectangular format, printed on beige paper, dated August 18, 1859 and signed by hand in black ink, glued under the large black drawer: Rue St Louis au Marais / N° 60 / Medals of 1st class Exp[ositi] ons universelle de Londres 1851 & Paris 1855 / 9 medals gold, silver & bronze / Cremer / marker, mosaicist patented S.G.D.G. / supplier of the King of Holland / marquetry by electric pile / Paris, August 18, 1859 / must Mr. [...] (Signed) Cremer PROVENANCE Former collection Count Charles-Alexis de Wendel (1809-1870) Exceptional flat desk opening to three drawers in belt, that of the center in recess. It is inlaid with a fine decoration of flowers and foliage in pewter and brass. Magnificent decoration in bronze, with falls of masks of fauns, the feet are lined with legs of lions in oak leaf branches. Appliques, rods, lingotière and entries of locks complete the decoration. This piece of furniture is signed on the lock of the central drawer - Cremer, rue Saint Louis 60, Paris - and dated and signed. It bears a partial invoice on the same drawer. Son of François de Wendel, creator of the first French rolling mills, Charles, born in December 1809 in Metz, entered the École Polytechnique, traveled extensively in England, a country at the forefront of new techniques, and contributed to a considerable expansion of mining activity in parallel with the development of the railway. He is also considered to be the initiator of a very innovative social policy for the time, such as the creation of the Stiring workers' housing estate. Very wealthy, a legitimist attached to the Count of Chambord, he sat in the Chamber of Deputies from 1849 to 1867. It was during this period that he had Sidoine Maurice Storez (1804 - 1881) build this vast private mansion, inspired by Louis XVI but characterized by a certain austerity, of this good tone proper to a bourgeois family, certainly ennobled, and rich. The monogram W adorns the pediment of the porch of the street side façade; it is also found on the north façade, on the garden side, thus facing the church of the Trinity of which the members of the family will become fervent parishioners. On the second floor, as in many aristocratic residences of the Ancien Régime, are the reception rooms (fig. 2). At the death of its first owner, the residence had 36 rooms. In addition to the antechambers, large and small, there were the dining room and the large salon, the boudoir and a bedroom, but also offices, containing a variety of quality furniture: a mahogany writing desk, a Louis XV style marquetry desk, another "BOULLE style" (extract from the inventory established in 1870). Austerity, comfort and good taste characterized the furnishing and decoration of the mansion, in which our office certainly took its full dimension.