Side cabinets with bronze medallions

These side cabinets reveal the ostentatious side of Napoleon III furniture. Inspired by Diehl’s first creations for the Universal Exhibition of 1867, a few of these cabinets appeared over the 3 years that followed. They can therefore be dated between 1867 and 1870, at the very end of the Napoleon III period. The bronze shortage that followed (bronze had been used on a massive scale in the war effort for the manufacture of weapons and cannon) made the production of these cabinets, richly decorated with bronze, more marginal. They were made over this short period and are therefore of quite particular interest, being relatively rare.