JOSEPH-EMMANUEL ZWIENER (born c.1849)

B68160

The bronze mounts stamped to the reverse ‘ZN’.

166.00 cm wide   254.00 cm high   62.00 cm deep

65.35 inches wide  100.00 inches high  24.41 inches deep

Alph. Maze-Sencier (1885), ‘Les Livres des Collectionneurs’, Paris.

Payne, Christopher (2003), ‘François Linke, 1855-1946, The Belle Epoque of French Furniture’, Antique Collectors' Club, Woodbridge.

Meyer, Jonathan (2006), Great Exhibitions - London, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, 1851-1900, Antique Collectors' Club, Woodbridge; p. 270, pls. H14; p. 299, p.302.

An Exceptional Gilt-Bronze Mounted Kingwood and Marquetry Armoire by Joseph-Emmanuel Zwiener.

The armoire is of bombe shape with an arched broken pediment centred by a pierced gilt-bronze crest above a pair of shaped doors divided into cartouche panels each finely inlaid with foliate marquetry opening to an interior with two drawers and shelves. The shaped sides have conforming marquetry panels and the armoire is raised on tapering legs and paw feet.

Joseph-Emmanuel Zwiener was an important Paris furniture maker of German extraction, who was born in Silesia circa 1848. He produced the very finest furniture, often copied from public collections in France. He employed as his sculptor, Léon Messagé, the Parisian sculptor of genius.

Zwiener’s pieces were acquired by many of the leading collectors of the nineteenth century. In particular he supplied his interpretation of the famous Bureau de Roi to Ludwig II at Herrenchiemsee, which was placed in the King's study in 1884.

Zwiener exhibited at the 1889 Paris Exhibition, where he was awarded a gold medal, for a stand which included an exceptional cabinet designed by Messagé (illustrated in Meyer, pl. H14).

In 1898, Zwiener received an extensive Royal commission from the King of Prussia, and was recalled to Berlin as the King would not order furniture from overseas makers when furnishing his palaces, preferring to order work from native Germans only. The Berlin Sculptor Otto Rohloff, whose bronze work is very similar to that of Messagé may have been hired by Zwiener for this Royal commission.

In 1895 his workshop was taken over by the important émigré and ébeniste, François Linke, who Christopher Payne speculates may have worked under Zwiener when he first arrived in Paris in 1875. Linke is known to have also taken on Zwiener's sculptor Léon Messagé. For this reason many of Zwiener's pieces have often been attributed to Linke.

In order to differentiate between Messagés commissions, the gilt bronze mounts were often marked to the reverse with the maker's initials. Several of Zwiener's mounts have been found to have a 'Z', ' Zw', a 'IZ', 'NZ', 'ZN' or a 'ZJ' on the reverse. This was primarily for the purpose of differentiation, rather than an artist's signature. Some of Zwiener's work was stamped but not exclusively, and only a few pieces have been found with a full signature and /or a date.

It can be speculated that Zwiener continued to work in Germany, after giving up his Paris workshop in 1895, as in 1900 he participated in the German section of the Paris Exhibition, where he exhibited the famous bedroom suite made for the Kaiser.

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