Ref.13879
One Hour of the Night, marble sculpture signed J. Pollet with its column

This astonishing marble sculpture from Carrara was created around 1850 by the French sculptor Joseph Michel-Ange Pollet, based on one of his plaster models exhibited at the Salon de Paris in 1848. It is a freestanding statue titled "One Hour of the Night," depicting a woman stretching with closed eyes. The column of the sculpture, made of sea-green marble with Doric codes, is fluted and features a rotating mechanism. A weary putto awakens at the feet of the sleeping Hour and holds flowers in his hands, similar to the ones adorning the crown of the nude woman. As her delicately folded feet seem to float in the air, a drapery appears to cascade from her hips towards the putto at her feet, culminating in a droplet shape near the signature "J. Pollet" on the base. A similar work by J. Pollet can be found in the collections of the Louvre Museum, but ours is the only one accompanied by its sea-green marble column. Pollet demonstrates great skill in creating an ethereal figure, seemingly suspending the marble body in space.

Ref.13767
Gabriel VIARDOT (attributed to), Japanese-Style Display Cabinet and Wardrobe, late 19th century

This dual-purpose piece of furniture, serving both as a display cabinet and a wardrobe, was made by Gabriel Viardot in the late 19th century. A talented wood sculptor, Gabriel Viardot opened a furniture workshop and store in Paris in 1853. In the 1870s, he decided to specialize in “Chinese-Japanese style furniture”. He received prestigious awards at the World’s Fairs in 1878, 1889, and 1900 in Paris, as well as a gold medal at the 1884 Antwerp International Exhibition. The asymmetry of the two sections of this piece, as well as its decoration, place it within Viardot’s Sino-Japanese-style production. Its feet are curved inward, a characteristic often found in Japanese furniture. The crosspieces are adorned with East Asian motifs. The right side of the piece displays particularly Japonist decoration. At the bottom, a menacing dragon seems to slither through the furniture panel - a signature motif in Viardot’s work. At the top, the door is decorated with a beautiful Japanese panel from the Meiji era (1868-1912). It combines an exquisitely detailed Japanese still life with engraved and gilded Japanese characters. This representation is typical of Japanese art from this period. The small sides are carved with vegetal motifs in low relief. The lock is marked with two stamps. Hilbrunner, a furniture lock maker active in the late 19th and early 20th century, was a regular supplier to Viardot. Gabriel Viardot designed another wardrobe combined with a small presentation cabinet, known through an old drawing. This drawing shows that the tiered tops of the furniture were intended by Viardot to serve as display platforms.