Proverb Table, Emile Gallé (1846-1904), Nancy, Art Nouveau

An auxiliary table, on three turned legs. Decorated with a naturalistic marquetry made from different species of fruit trees. This is a "talking piece of furniture". Émile Galle often wrote different words on his furniture, sometimes extracts from his favorite poems or proverbs. Émile Gallé (1846-1904), Art Nouveau, Nancy, around 1890. Sign. "Emile Gallé Nancy, with cross of Lorraine monogram". Height 72.5cm, width 52cm, length 54cm. Condition shown in photos. The furniture is not stable, to refresh or renovate. The cost and delivery method to be agreed. Émile Gallé (1846-1904) - famous designer of porcelain, glass and furniture. A precursor of Art Nouveau in Nancy, then director of the famous École de Nancy, he hung the motto above his studio: "Our roots are deep in the woods, at the edge of springs, among the mosses". The many Nancy artists, active in various artistic fields, were largely inspired by flora and fauna, especially Lorraine, expressing on the one hand a romantic aspiration to contact nature and on the other hand a local patriotism. Certain furniture elements, such as the library legs dating from around 1900, refer to furniture from the Far East, and floral and zoomorphic motifs still play a dominant role, such as in the chair with the leaf-shaped back or the famous 1904 bed, the artist's last work, in which marquetry and inlay butterflies symbolize dawn and dusk, or perhaps birth and death as well. Émile Gallé believed that the greatest happiness for an artist-craftsman is the joy of his work.