Page 41 - Studio International - January 1966

Gallé the Daum brothers and Louis Majorelle also
designed and made furniture in which the same motifs
of flowers combined with inscriptions were carried out
in marquetry of various woods. In the finest examples
the shapes are simple and elegant, with discreet hand-
carved ornament, and are worthy of comparison with
work of the Eighteenth Century, but often the symbolism
is overdone, Majorelle in particular tending to smother
the furniture with wrought-iron appliqués and elaborate
landscapes in inlaid woods.
The Doulton dessert plate (right), though of
English manufacture, is much more French in feeling
than most products of English Art Nouveau, which
tended to be less influenced by the Japanese and to
adhere more to symmetrical ornament. The treatment
of the poppies and the seed-heads (a favourite motif in
France, with its associations of sleep and dreams) in
broad flat tones outlined in dark green, the ornament of
leaves on the border which are so conventionalised as
to be almost abstract shapes, are reminiscent of the
Above designs of the Frenchman Ed Benedictus. The design
Silver gilt and enamel cup
by Fouquet, Paris of poppies on the small silver gilt and enamel cup has,
Height 1 in. however, been identified by the writer with a design by
(The ornament is after p. 29 of
Documents Decoratifs by the prolific Alphonse Mucha in his volume 'Les
Alphonse Mucha, Paris 1902) Documents Décoratifs', published in 1902, which
Right contains designs for furniture, jewellery, lace, textiles
Porcelain plate with
transfer decoration of poppies and posters intended to be used as models for
by Doulton ornaments to be altered and adapted as necessary.
Diameter 8 1/4 in.
These pattern books, similar to those produced in the
Eighteenth Century, were produced in considerable
numbers in France at the end of the Nineteenth Century,
and were certainly circulating in England, and no doubt
the design for the Doulton plates was taken from one of
these books.

Alphonse Mucha
Left
Portrait of Ethel Barrymore
New York 1905
* Pencil, signed
19 3/4 x 16 1/4 in.
Right
• Hamlet
Poster for Sarah Bernhardt
at the Theatre Sarah Bernhardt
Lithograph drawn on stone
• and signed by Mucha
83 x 30 in.
Paris 1899
By courtesy of
Grosvenor Gallery