FRANCIS JOURDAIN CABINET
A rare, early 20th century, single-door column cabinet by Francis Jourdain. Constructed from oak timber with original hand-blown glazing, brass hardware and newly reinstated interior curtain in navy linen. The door opens to reveal four adaptable shelves within, while a single drawer below adds alternative storage.
Part of Jourdain’s pioneering range of ‘Meubles Interchangeables’ (interchangeable furniture).
Fire-stamped to the reverse.
French, c. 1917.
W60 x D43 x H189.5 cm
Francis Jourdain (1876-1958) - Born in Paris and son of famous Belgian architect Frantz Jourdain. Primarily a painter, but also an interior designer, furniture maker, ceramicist and left-wing political activist. Jourdain began making furniture in 1911, creating simplistic modular wooden furniture for working class people which he advertised in socialist newspaper L'Humanité.
By 1919 he had his own furniture shop and in 1920 collaborated with Le Corbusier to produce a journal promoting the industrial scale manufacture of furniture, with a view to helping build the French economy in the aftermath of WW1.
Much like Adrien Audoux & Frida Minnet did later in the 1950s – Jourdain often attacked the ideas and ethics of luxurious French furniture of his time and focussed on creating pieces from humble materials such and pine, oak and rope.
£12,500.00
