Fine Rare 19C French Napoleon III Commode Cabinet Diehl Paris Signed

Beautiful 19th-century French Napoleon III Commode, Cabinet by Charles-Guillaume Diehl ( 1811-1885 ).

The cabinet black ebonized wood with gilt bronze mounts and Boulle style brass inlay. Four legs. White marble top. Single front door with the lock, inside signed DIEHL , PARIS 19. R. Michel - Le - Comte.

Size: 46" ( 117 cm ) height,  38" ( 96,5 cm ) width,  18" ( 46 cm ) depth. 

Nicely finished interior with one shelf.

Condition: very good, refinished, working lock.

Charles-Guillaume Diehl was born in Steinbach (Grand-Duché de Hesse) on the 20th of July, 1811. He moved to Paris in 1840 to 3 rue de Thorigny and then to 170 rue Saint-Martin, but wasn’t listed in the Almanach du Commerce until 1850. At this point, he set up at 16 rue Michel-le-comte. He then moved to number 21 on the same street (1851-1842) and to number 19, until he died (1853-1885). His workshops were located on 39 rue Saint-Sebastien, where he employed six hundred workers in 1870.

Training Tabletier, he developed his production towards making luxury furniture, attracting crowds at the Universal Exhibitions. Diehl made elegant  pieces of furniture out of rosewood and thuya in the style of Boulle, those  that made him famous.

His marquetry skills were rewarded by a silver medal at the World's Fair of 1867 in Paris. The craftsmanship of Charles-Guillaume Diehl lives on in prestigious museums such as the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Musée de l’Ecole de Nancy, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.