: --..I- '", "p:- -m *:.i-3Y` _tB :; .,t- a;i 9 ibtr` . :BIl,: '";" -i `rl 4 W.l'ri::L ` ;:L-; i' "", -.. . . :I;pCU, d 2: -' ;: " ''' -t :'-i::-:i * e.:ep
, . .... . --*.tt:- : . ::: ::-i':i:. ; .121b-: iY i% 1a2::: O IslaO r-" - '13p ci7 .P. Oati "; ,Y, II: -;, 55.: '' 41 Er 1 . - 3' : I Ir. I,' ( Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann (1879- 1933) was generally acknowledged as the leader <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Art</strong> Deco style. <strong>The</strong> artiste decorateur par excellence, he showed furniture in the salons <strong>of</strong> the Societe des <strong>Art</strong>istes Decorateurs from 1913 and undertook interior design with his own firm <strong>of</strong> Ruhlmann et Laurent after the war. His pavilion, tellingly titled "I'Htel d'un Riche Collectionneur," was the most popular exhibit at the 1925 Exposition. Ruhlmann used ebenisterie. the technique <strong>of</strong> veneered furniture perfected in eighteenth-century France, to execute designs distilled from earlier furniture forms. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Metropolitan</strong>'s desk and file cabinet were commissioned by David David-Weill, president <strong>of</strong> the National <strong>Museum</strong>s <strong>of</strong> France, for use in his own home, where they.were surrounded by the eighteenth-century art <strong>of</strong> which David-Weill was a renowned collector. I ri 41 Desk: About 1918-19. Amboyna, ivory. and sharkskin, I. 4 7/2 in. Purchase. Edgar Kaufmann. Jr. Gift, 1973.154.1. File cabinet: About 1918-19. Amboyna and ivory. h. 271/2 in. Purchase, Bequest <strong>of</strong> Collis P Huntington. by exchange, 1973.154.3. Chair: 1918-28. Amboyna, silvered bronze, and leather, h. 29% in. Purchase, Bequest <strong>of</strong> Mr. and Mrs. Graham F Blandy. Bequest <strong>of</strong> Jeanne King de Rham, in memory <strong>of</strong> her father, David King, and Gift <strong>of</strong> Vera Bloom, in memory <strong>of</strong> her father, Congressman Sol Bloom, by exchange, 1973.154.2