Wartime Furniture Draws Unusual Attention

WARTIME FURNITURE
Draws Unusual Attention
French furniture from the first half of the 20th century — whether Art Deco or 1950s pieces — has never been so sought after.
That’s why examples are turning up in the “Important 20th-Century Design” sale on Sunday at the Wright auction house in Chicago, and in New York sales on Thursday at Phillips, de Pury & Company, on June 5 at Christie’s and on June 19 at Sotheby’s.


Nonetheless, Maison Gerard, a Greenwich Village gallery at 53 East 10th Street specializing in 20th-century French furniture, caused a stir last week when it opened an eclectic show of 35 French antiques from the 1940s.
They are mostly one-of-a-kind examples by well-known designers, including Jacques Adnet, André Arbus, Jules Leleu and Gilbert Poillerat. On view, for example, are a parchment-covered sleigh bed by Arbus, a massive oak dining table by Adnet and a gilded, wrought-iron occasional table by Poillerat.
What attracted some unusual attention was that this sumptuous furniture was created during World War II, after the Germans occupied northern France in 1940.
The period is discussed in James Archer Abbott’s 2016 book on Maison Jansen, a prominent Paris decorating firm founded in 1880 whose clients included the shah of Iran, the duke of Windsor and Jacqueline Kennedy when she was first lady.
“The firm remained open for the duration of the four-year occupation, fulfilling limited orders for French clients while attending to those of the Nazi government,” Mr. Abbott writes. “So strong was the German affinity for the Jansen taste,” he continues, that the firm’s president, Stéphane Boudin, “was asked to oversee the design of reception rooms for the Bank of Germany’s headquarters in Berlin.”
Mr. Boudin did not refuse.
Some French designers left France. Charlotte Perriand, stranded in Japan when war broke out, remained there. Pierre Chareau went to the United States, where he designed Robert Motherwell’s studio in the Hamptons.
“Others served in the French Army,” said Benoist F. Drut, a partner in Maison Gerard with its founder, Gerard Widdershoven. “Leleu, a skilled aviator, was a commandant in the French Air Force, while Adnet did camouflage.”
At Leleu’s firm his daughter Paule took control of the family business until her father returned in 1942. (In the fall Françoise Siriex, a longtime employee, will publish “Leleu,” an illustrated French-language history of the firm, with Éditions Monelle Hayot.)
Shortages of raw materials, from metal to imported woods, seemed only to inspire French designers. Arbus used pale oak and caned seating for an elongated settee for a client’s game room. Batistin Spade created a honey-colored lacquered bar-cabinet with interior shelves of bright red laminated plastic. Poillerat gilded wrought iron to make it look like bronze. Adnet asked the artist Maurice Savin to embellish his oak dining table with white ceramic caryatidlike legs.
“Everyone was working with whatever was available,” Mr. Drut said. “If you had a friend who was a ceramist and out of work, why not use him? People were trying to do their best with an eye on quality.”
Some designers met regularly during the war. “Leleu would gather friends such as Arbus, Adnet, Domin of Dominique, Eugène Printz and Jean Pascaud to discuss how to make their work more lyrical and welcoming,” Mr. Drut said.
The pieces in the show are in a mix of styles, as the use of ornament returned in reaction to the functionally modern furniture of the 1930s. (Referring to the simplification of modern forms, Mr. Pascaud wrote, “While wanting to be too pure, certain designers reached poverty.”)
Reviewing a 1999 exhibition of 1940’s French furniture in Boulogne, France, for Art in America, Michele C. Cone addressed the contradictory ways in which the objects reflected the historical context: “Despite the straitened circumstances under which they were made, these objects emanate self-confidence, freely embracing unusual materials, bold forms, frank color and a lightheartedness that was emphatically out of tune with its context, particularly during the Vichy years (1940-1944).”
He continued: “The pieces bespeak a period when time was more readily available than fine materials. On the other hand, whether they date from before, during or after World War II, the works, while radiating fantasy, luxury and theatricality, evince little practical or monetary concern.”
So who could afford them?
“The very wealthy remained wealthy,” Mr. Drut said. “The black market thrived. Such traders were unflatteringly labeled ‘BOF’ — for beurre, oeuf, fromage — because they could get butter, eggs and cheese. And while the middle class suffered, there was a whole group working for the Nazis and the French government who were newly rich.”
Then, right after the war, the French government commissioned designers to fashion gifts for heads of state and furnishings for foreign ministries and ocean liners. Leleu, for example, decorated the dining room in the Élysée Palace, the president’s train and several embassies.
PRIMAVERA MOVES
After 35 years on Madison Avenue, Primavera Gallery has moved to a large, light-filled space in Chelsea on the eighth floor of 211 Eleventh Avenue, at 25th Street.
Primavera has long specialized in late-19th-century and 20th-century decorative objects (jewelry, glass, ceramics and silver), paintings and furniture, including works by Maison Gerard favorites like Poillerat, Pascaud, Arbus, Adnet, Chareau and Printz.
Unlike most dealers in the decorative arts, the owners, Audrey Friedman and her husband, Haim Manishevitz, also have vitrines full of antique jewelry, from Bulgari, Boucheron, Chaumet, Cartier, Mauboussin, Verdura, Suzanne Belperron, Seaman Schepps and Jean Schlumberger.
“Our emphasis is on signed pieces from Art Deco through the 1950s, not large diamonds or masses of precious stones,” Ms. Friedman said.
The shop also has a large selection of French and Italian glass, from Daum, Émile Gallé and Lalique to Venini; and modern lamps, which may explain the gallery’s popularity with decorators.