Jacques Adnet Art Deco Modernist desk

• Jacques Adnet (1901-1984), desk or dressing table with three drawers and integrated lamp, mirror-covered fronts and shelves and solid glass handles, circa 1932.
• The cabinet has been conserved rather than restored, and shows signs of wear and deformation of its corner pieces. The side mirror has been replaced.
• H 75 CM X D 50 CM X W 101 CM.
• Drawers P 38 CM X H 18 CM.
• Lamp H 43 CM X P 19 CM X W 53 CM.
• Bibliography: Hardy, Alain-René & Millet, Gaëlle. Jacques Adnet, Paris, 2014, Editions de l’Amateur. Comparable model reproduced on cover, pp 15 and pp 73.

Model compared to the one reproduced on the cover of the book by A-R Hardy and G. Millet published by Editions de l’Amateur.

Model compared to the one reproduced on page 15 of the book by A-R Hardy and G. Millet published by Editions de l’Amateur.

Jacques Adnet (1900-1984)

An architect and decorator, he began his career in 1920 alongside Maurice Dufrène, whom he joined in 1922 at Mastery. the Galeries Lafayette art studio founded in 1921 and directed by Maurice Dufrène. A proponent of rigorous functionalism, he designed furniture with an assertive, uncluttered construction, stripped of all superfluous ornamentation. His creations are distinguished by a clear formal logic and the use of noble materials. He frequently collaborated with his twin brother Jean, and their work attracted attention as early as the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs.

Adnet went on to manage the Compagnie des Arts Français, founded in 1919 by Süe and Mare, which he profoundly transformed. He replaced traditional aesthetics with a modernist vision oriented towards industrial production. Around him, he brought together a circle of renowned artists who shared this modernity: painters (Dufy, Léger, Chagall), ceramists, goldsmiths, coppersmiths and decorators such as Francis Jourdain, Charlotte Perriand, René Gabriel, Alexandre Noll, Serge Mouille and Paul Jouve…

In the 1930s, he introduced metal and glass on a massive scale into his creations: seats, bedside tables, nesting tables in square-section tubing, coffee tables in glass slabs or small pieces of furniture made entirely of glass screwed onto invisible structures.

A creator of prestigious furniture ensembles, Jacques Adnet designed furniture for Frank Jay Gould’s hotel, the President of the Republic’s study at the Château de Rambouillet, President Vincent Auriol’s private apartment at the Élysée Palace, several liners including the Ferdinand-de-Lesseps, and for UNESCO (1958).