Louis XVI style commode

A marquetry commode with three drawers framed with tombac sticks opening with gilt bronze handles shaped as laurel garlands decorated with leaves and oil lamps. The gilt bronze ornaments on the sides of the drawers represent acanthus leaves and circle shaped garlands, the top is made out of Alep marble.
After the Revolution, the great bourgeois and the court of Napoleon III dream of getting back the splendor and the elegance of the Old Regime. The influence of the Empress Eugenie, who dedicates a boundless admiration for Marie-Antoinette, is crucial in this new trend.
The new rich industrials relay this fashion that came exactly at the right moment. It allows them to surround themselves with an aristocratic background, copied from the one of the previous century. In the 19th century, between 1852 and 1870, under the reign of Napoleon III and well beyond appears the furniture «de style», perfect replicas of those created in the 18th century. Sometimes, with a touch of irony, they are nicknamed «Louis XVI Empress, » a wink to the beautiful Eugenie.