Walter Abner Burns Nichols was one of the most colorful of the American adventurer/entrepreneurs in 1920s China. The Nichols name has come to be used almost synonymously with the ‘Chinese deco’ rugs manufactured in Tientsin, China in the 1920s and 1930s. Nichols did not originate the Chinese deco style, but he did a great deal to popularize it and to maintain its high standards of manufacture.
Nichols began in his youth as a first-class wool grader who went to Tientsin around 1920 to work for the Elbrook family of wool merchants. Nichols started his own business a couple of years later. In a brochure he produced in the late ’20s, with the assistance of Pande-Cameron, he announced: “In 1924 W.A.B. Nichols of Tientsin, North China, introduced the Super Chinese Rug which has become world famous. It is known in every market as the most durable and beautiful product of the modern Chinese weavers art and adorns the homes of people all over the earth.”
Alexandre Noll rare and early Art Deco mahogany and glass box c. 1930
ALEXANDRE NOLL (1890-1970) France
Covered box c. 1930
Mahogany with ebony peg details and 1 ¼ inch thick Saint-Gobain glass.
Marks: ANoll
Provenance: Private Collection New York, Galerie de Beyrie Paris, Odile Noll (A. Noll’s daughter), Alexandre Noll Estate
For more information see: Alexandre Noll, Olivier Jean-Elie, Pierre Passebon (Paris:Edition du Regard, 1999); Alexandre Noll: Les Matres de L’ Art Decoratif Contemporain, Collection dirigée par R. Moutard-Uldry edited by (Geneve: Pierre Cailler, 1954); Le Mobilier du Xxe Siécle: Dictionnaire des
Créateurs, Pierre Kjellberg (Paris: Les Éditons de l’Amateur, 1994) p. 455-456.
Christofle / Luc Lanel French Art Deco Dinanderie Vase c.1930
LUC LANEL (1893-1965) France
ORFÈVRERIE CHRISTOFLE Paris
Ovoid form with a foot and flared lip design with a polished copper body with an overall stepped rectangular and square motif geometric design
Marks: CHRISTOFLE (large script with wave lines below), B 173, G
For more information see: Mobilier et Décoration d’Interieur ( 1924-25), p. 10; Les Arts Décoratifs Modernes (France), Gaston Quènioux (Paris: Librairie Larousse, 1925), p. 176; 150 Ans d’Ofèvrerie Christofle, Henri Bouilhet ([Paris]: Chêne/Hachette: 1981), pp. 241 and 230.
Cloisonne enamel in a fantasy of archaic Chinese motifs in red, royal blue, black white and sand colored abstract designs on a bronze body with a turquoise enameled underside and interior.
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