A French gilt-bronze mounted tulipwood and kingwood table à thé, in the manner of Joseph Emmanuel Zwiener, late 19th/early 20th century

A related model, with frieze drawers, was supplied by Joseph Emmanuel Zwiener to Kaiser Wilhelm II for the Schloss Neues Palais, Sans Souci, Potsdam circa 1895 (illustrated J. Meiner, Berliner Belle Epoque: Der Ebenist Julius Zwiener und Kunstmöbel für den Hof Kaiser Wilhelms II, Berlin, 2014, p. 39). 

A variation of this model without frieze drawers, and thus identical to the present, was attributed to Zwiener and sold at Christie's, New York, 8 October 2020, lot 231.

Joseph Emmanuel Zwiener (1849-1895)

Born in Herdon, Germany in 1849, Joseph Emmanuel Zwiener worked in Paris between 1880 and 1895. He established his workshop at 12, rue de la Roquette, becoming one of the premiere haut luxe cabinetmakers of the late 19th century. The exceptional quality of Zwiener's craftsmanship and extensive usage of fine gilt-bronze invites comparisons to the work of famed ébéniste, François Linke (1855-1946). Zwiener almost certainly employed Linke, who was six years younger and a fellow German-speaker. Both cabinetmakers used mounts by the gifted sculptor, Léon Messagé, whose studio on the rue Sedaine was in close proximity to the Zwiener workshops and Linke's at 170, rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine.