1812 Percier & Fontaine -Napoleons Interior Designers Start Price USD 2,500.00 Current Price USD 2,500.00 Time Left 7 days 19 hours 54 minutes Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Tuesday, September 16, 2008 End Time Wednesday, January 14, 2009 Location Northampton, Massachusetts See more about '1812 Percier & Fontaine -Napoleons Interior Designers' Description "Recueil de Decorations Interieures, comprenant tout ce qui a Rapport a l’Ameublement..." By Charles Percier & P.F.L. Fontaine. Printed in Paris in 1812. Percier and Fontaine were a talented team of Empire/Neo-Classic designers who helped Napoleon redecorate many of his residences and public buildings in the new Empire styles and also provided the designs and models for the French Empire style in furniture and interior décor, as illustrated here. They met as students at the Paris Ecole des Beaux Arts and worked together in Rome at the French Academy. Lincoln Kirstein has much to say about them and their somewhat complicated relationship with Napoleon in the excellent catalog "The Taste of Napoleon" (William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, 1969) from which we take the liberty of quoting liberally-"As architects and designers, Percier and Fontaine contributed greatly to the panoply of elegance with which Napoleon surrounded himself. They were the architects for the Empress Josephine for the remodeling of Malmaison, they were the architects of the Louvre and of the Tuileries... they worked at Saint-Cloud, the Trianon, Compiegne, and Fountainebleau... Percier, supremely disciplined by measuring ancient Roman monuments fused the various strands into a contemporary Parisian antiquarianism...restored to a fresh wholeness, scaled down to modern metropolitan needs, primed for production and use. Elements in the vocabulary -eagles, sphinxes, victories, wreaths, fasces, columns, trophies, insignia -were worked and reworked, but Percier's delineation, his exquisite sense of proportion and fitness, his suggestion of the subtle plasticity of chiseled low-relief, made it seem like a novel metric to hymn Napoleon's epic." But it was not all quite that easy. Relations between the Emperor and his designers could be strained- "(Napoleon) was unpardonably rude to Charles Percier, a sickly mouse of a man, angelic character, marvelous draftsman, since he was too shy and busy to set himself constantly in the Emperor's entourage and play an assiduous courtier. Whereupon, Napoleon pretended he didn't exist. Fortunately his devoted comrade Fontaine, a bold, hard-shelled, skillful administrator protected Percier to do his best work, secluded in an almost secret studio, between floors in the Louvre. ... It is likely Napoleon was aware of Percier's part in his partnership with Fontaine; only he hadn't the patience to placate shyness; it saved time to talk to one strong foreman rather than a committee of two... Fontaine's great service lay in knowing how far he could risk Percier's freedom... Official recognition of the true genius of the partnership came late. It was not easy to work for Bonaparte. ... The team of Percier and Fontaine, in the capacities of supreme designer, agile diplomat, expediter, and shop-manager, learned how to accommodate Josephine's whim to Napoleon's will. It was she who had Percier's name written in on letters-patent naming Fontaine Architect of the Palace. How could two such loving comrades be separated? This was as much taste as sentiment...". This oversized volume features grandly decorated cabinets, chairs, sofas and other furniture, as well as wall panels and decorations, and silver candelabra and dishes, and all sorts of other decorations. A frenzied, meticulously detailed explosion of Empirical Neo-Classicism. Hardcover. 11.5”x16.5”, 43 pages of text with an engraved vignette, plus 72 engraved plates. Bound in old vellum-covered boards with a leather spine label. Boards somewhat worn, scuffed and soiled [see photo]. Contents with some light soil and light variable foxing; not in pristine condition, but still a very nice example of an important book. International Buyers Please Note: Boxed shipping weight- 7 lbs. - QUESTIONS about this item? If you have any questions regarding this item, please let us know and we will respond promptly. We have more books like this listed in our Ebay store! Joslin Hall Books Selling books since 1983 INSURANCE??? As a seller we take responsibility for properly packing and delivering your purchase safely to you. You do not have to spend extra for insurance to guarantee that. RETURNS: We want you to be completely satisfied- anything is returnable for any reason at all within 14 days of receipt; we do ask that you notify us that you are returning it. OVERSEAS CUSTOMERS: We always welcome orders from customers outside the United States. The United States Post Office has discontinued surface (sea mail) shipments overseas, and so all packages must now go by air, meaning shipping to overseas customers costs more than it used to. You can use the Ebay shipping calculator (below), or use the "Ask Us a Question" button, to find the cost of shipping before you buy a book. If we can answer any other questions, please let us know. - Member of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America and the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers. Your satisfaction is guaranteed with every book you purchase. Place a Bid!