Art deco furniture

Magazine Antiques, June, 2004 by Allison Eckardt Ledes

Emile Jacques Ruhlmann was one of the most innovative and talented designers of the art deco period. He created furniture that is greatly admired for its excellent craftsmanship and distinctive look, attained through the use of sumptuous and exotic woods such as macassar ebony, amboyna, American burl walnut, and rosewood punctuated by contrasting materials such as ivory, tortoiseshell, or bronze. Even in his own day, Ruhlmann's furniture was extremely expensive.

Ruhlmann had joined his father's paint contracting firm in 1900, and at his father's death in 1907, the company passed into his hands. After World War I, with the assistance of his partner Pierre Laurent, Ruhlmann expanded the company to include interior design work and all its affiliated branches: furniture, lighting, textiles, carpets, and wallpaper design. The company existed in this form until just after Ruhlmann's death in 1933. Few of his interiors remain, and his furniture today is widely sought after. A large exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City entitled Ruhlmann: Genius of Art Deco is on view from June 8 through September 5. It focuses well-deserved attention on Ruhlmann's contribution to design history, which is also the subject of an article that will appear in this magazine next month.

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Another Ruhlmann exhibition, organized by the New York City gallery Maison Gerard, is on view there until June 19. It focuses on Ruhlmann's furniture and includes tables, chairs, sideboards, and cabinets as well as photographs and other documents. The upholstered pieces have been re-covered in fabric Ruhlmann originally designed for the textile manufacturer Prelle et Compagnie, which still operates in Lyon, France. In the early 1930s Ruhlmann was commissioned to supply functional furnishings for student dormitories of the Cite internationale universitaire de Paris, and pieces from this much more understated and less-expensive commission are included in this exhibition.

There is no catalogue of this show.