JEAN DUNAND (1877-1942), Circa 1930

JEAN DUNAND Lacquered wood coiffeuse

#7665

Lacquered wood coiffeuse; the rectangular center panel supporting a circular mirror; the sides with open circular compartments of red lacquered metal; each side with four pivoting graduated drawers; overall in a rich amber lacquer.

Stamped multiple times: “JEAN DUNAND / JEAN DUNAND LACQUEUR” within a square. One drawer stamped: “GM/E 9381, for Garde Meuble Ebenisterie”.

Jean Dunand exhibited this vanity in 1930 in his “Boudoir” at the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs. In 1941, the vanity was acquired by the Mobilier National, the French state collection of furniture and tapestries, as part of a large purchase from Dunand’s workshop. The Mobilier National made the purchase in an effort to keep the firm’s artisans employed in France during the Second World War and thereby save them from being shipped to Germany under the terms of a Nazi work program. In 1972 the vanity was officially sold or “vendue par les domaines”. The armchair designed for use with the vanity and exhibited with it in 1930 remains in the collection of the Mobilier National.

Measurements

  • Height: 43 ½ in. (110.5 cm)
  • Table height: 25 ¾ in. (65.5 cm)
  • Length: 62 in. (157.5 cm)
  • Depth: 25 ½ in. (64.8 cm)

Documentation

Art et Décoration, 1930, p. 207.
La Renaissance de l’Art Français, 1930, p. 207.
L’Amour de l’Art, 1930, p. 337.
Le Salon des Artistes Décorateurs, Paris: Vincent Freal et Cie, 1930, pl. 39.
Yvonne Brunhammer and Suzanne Tise, French Decorative Arts, The Societe des Artistes Decorators 1900-1942, Paris: Flammarion, 1990, pp. 156-157, an illustration of the vanity in the Boudoir designed by Dunand for the 1930 Salon des Artistes Décorateurs, Paris.
Raffaele De Grade, Le Mobilier du XXe Siècle En France et en Europe, 1988, p. 132.
Lisa Schlansker Kolosek, The Invention of Chic, Therese Bonney and Paris Moderne, New York: Thames and Hudson, 2002, p. 99
Felix Marcilhac, Jean Dunand, His Life and Works, London: Thames and Hudson, 1991, p. 328, pp. 328 & 118 no. 1210.

Exhibition

Salon des Artistes Décorateurs, Paris 1930.

Provenance

Ateliers Jean Dunand.
Mobilier National, December 15, 1941 – May, 1972.
Collection of Robert Walker.