Ruhlmann : Master of Art Deco

London: Thames & Hudson 1984. 4to. 312 pp, 487 illustrations, including 67 plates in full colour. Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann was one of the greatest and most prolific art deco interior and furniture designers. Active long before the famous Exposition des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels in Paris in 1925 (from which the name art deco derives), Ruhlmann was a tastemaker and a stylesetter working and associating with the best artists in the worlds of fashion, architecture and the decorative arts, and catering to an international clientele of diplomats, wealthy businessmen and artistocrats. Ruhlmann's pieces were designed as works of art, and even during the 1920s, one of his unique cabinets could be priced higher than the average house. His hundreds of detailed, accurate and beautiful sketches - many here reproduced - were realized in the most exacting fashion by expert craftsmen in his ateliers. In his desks, cabinets, bureaux, sideboards and tables he used rare woods; with exquisite ornamentation provided by ivory, tortoiseshell, lacquer, mirrors, silk and tooled metals. Also here included are examples of his designs for lamps, wall coverings, cigar boxes, unusually shaped beds and divans, and whole interiors - including an entire pavilion designed for the 1925 exposition. Florence Camard teaches in the Centre for the Study of the Art Object in Paris 0500234051 . Very Good. Hardcover. 1984.