the pdf

junE 3,2015 - 7PM
Serrurier-Bovy
Masterworks from
a Private Collection
exhibition
May 29, 2015 - 10am—7pm
May 30, 2015 - 11am—7pm
June 1st, 2015 - 10am—7pm
June 2nd, 2015 - 10am—7pm
June 3rd, 2015 - 10am—7pm
PIASA
118 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré
75008 Paris - France
PRESS & COMMUNICATION
Cécile Demtchenko Woringer
T +33 1 53 34 12 95 - M +33 6 22 16 85 96
[email protected]
Press release
On 3 June 2015 PIASA will offer for sale an important collection of works
by Gustave Serrurier-Bovy (1858-1910), assembled over thirty years ago
by an Art Nouveau devotee, in whose hands they have remained ever since.
This rare ensemble showcases Serrurier’s creative genius and indisputable
influence on 20th century Design.
The most historical pieces are part of the MET collection in New-york, in
the Musée d’orsay Art deco section in Paris and in the Brussel and Liège
Museum in Belgium as the most important creation from the artist.
‘There is no point employing all our creative faculties for a society on the wane
– but for a new world!’
– Gustave Serrurier
Art Nouveau: Towards Modernity
Gustave Serrurier was an architect, designer and industrialist who became one of
Belgium’s leading exponents of Art Nouveau and a precursor of the modern Design
movement. His concern for industrial aesthetics made him a stylistic trendsetter.
Serrurier was the son of an woodwork entrepreneur, and combined his school
studies in Liège with lessons at the local Ecole des Beaux-Arts. On a trip to London
he fell in love with the new approach to lifestyle inspired by William Morris and
his disciples. Back in Belgium he decided to devote himself to interior design and
in 1884, after marrying Maria Bovy, founded the firm Serrurier-Bovy in Liège.
His initial activity involved importing furniture and decorative elements from
Great Britain and Japan, adopting a new sales approach by fitting out his shops
in Belgium and France to resemble rooms in a private home in 1903. Serrurier
became convinced of the need to link architecture with the decorative arts, and
soon moved on to Design: L’Aube, the masterful villa he built for himself in
Liège, was conceived as a ‘total work’ with aesthetics and comfort allied to robust
construction.
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Furniture & Architecture: An All-Embracing Concept
From 1903-05 Serrurier worked with the architect René Dulong to enlarge and
refurnish the Château de la Cheyrelle, built in the late 1850s in a village in central
France. The result was the ‘world’s only complete surviving example of Gustave
Serrurier-Bovy’s innovative principles’ (to quote the Monuments Historiques –
France’s national heritage agency). Interior highlights included an amazing floorlamp in mahogany, iron, brass and glass (est. €40,000-60,000) and an oak and
iron dining-room suite comprising eight chairs, two armchairs and a table (est.
€20,000-30,000).
Another historical piece is the cabinet-vitrine in oak dated from 1899, estimated 25
000 / 35 000 euros, a similar model is preserve at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New-York as the only piece by the artist.
Serrurier’s innovative Silex suite was a landmark in the history of Design. It was
made for a competition for furnishing low-cost dwellings in Liège, staged as part
of the city’s Exposition Universelle of 1905. By inventing mobilier à joints (a system
based on assembling individual units), he helped make quality furniture available
to the public at large, using cheaper woods (like poplar or pine) enhanced with
stencil patterning, and with screws left visible. The bedrooms at Château de la
Cheyrelle were furnished in this manner, as if to demonstrate that Silex furniture
could embellish both bourgeois and working-class interiors.
Serrurier’s furniture ranges from refined designs in precious woods, of complex
manufacture, to simpler, practical, yet highly expressive items in oak. His allembracing approach united style, comfort and robust construction.
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© Matthieu Salvaing
Gustave Serrurier-Bovy
(1858-1910)
Canapé, 899
Acajou
5 000 / 7 000 €
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Gustave Serrurier-Bovy
(1858-1910)
Cabinet-vitrine, 1899/1900
Chêne, laiton et cabochons émaillées
25 000 / 35 000 €
Similar work in narra wood in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New-York
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Gustave Serrurier-Bovy
(1858-1910)
Liszt
Table à thé
Padouk, sycomore, laiton et verre
Date de création : vers 1904
H 116 × L 64 × P 49,5 cm
7 000 / 9 000 €
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Gustave Serrurier-Bovy
(1858-1910)
Buffet
Chêne, incrustations, laiton et verre «Lötz»
Date de création : 1910
H 188 × L 153 × P 59 cm
20 000 / 30 000 €
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Gustave Serrurier-Bovy
(1858-1910)
Porte-journaux
Acajou et laiton
Date de création : 1904
H 91,5 × L 32,5 × P 35 cm
10 000 / 15 000 €
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Gustave Serrurier-Bovy
(1858-1910)
Silex
Fauteuil
Peuplier et fer peint
Date de création : 1904
H 111 × l 66 × P 55 cm
15 000 / 20 000 €
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Gustave Serrurier-Bovy
(1858-1910)
Lampadaire
Acajou, fer peint en vert, laiton et verre
Pièce unique
Date de création : 1904
H 196 × Ø 35 cm
Provenance du château de la Cheyrelle
40 000 / 60 000 €
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Gustave Serrurier-Bovy
(1858-1910)
Gamma
Bibliothèque tournante
Acajou et laiton
Date de création : 1904
H 116 × L 62 × P 62 cm
12 000 / 18 000 €
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Gustave Serrurier-Bovy
(1858-1910)
Table à thé avec tablette détachable
Padouk et laiton
Date de création : 1902/1903
H 101 × L 78,5 × P 44 cm
Bibliographie : Une variante publiée p. 189 dans
«Art Nouveau» de Siegfried Wichmann
15 000 / 20 000 €
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Gustave Serrurier-Bovy
(1858-1910)
Silex
Armoire
Peuplier, fer peint bleu et pochoirs bleu
Date de création : 1905
H 220 × L 96 × P 50 cm
10 000 / 15 000 €
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Gustave Serrurier-Bovy
(1858-1910)
Cache-pot
Acajou, laiton, cuivre et pot en grès bleu
Date de création : 1904
H 31,5 × L 25 × l 25 cm
6 000 / 9 000 €
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© Matthieu Salvaing
Gustave Serrurier-Bovy
(1858-1910)
Paire de fauteuils, 1902
Chêne et fer peint
8 000 / 12 000 €
Pendule, 1903
Chêne, laiton et verre
8 000 / 12 000 €
Liszt, 1903/1904
Table basse
Acajou, marbre et laiton
Pièce unique
5 000 / 7 000 €
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Design Department
Cédric Morisset
François Épin
Cindy Chanthavong
Upcoming design auctions
> May 21
Artist/designers
> June 11
Arts décoratifs et design
> July 5 in Monaco
« Riviera » design
www.piasa.fr
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