Ferdinand Bury (1740–1795) was a Parisian cabinetmaker ( ébéniste) during the reign of Louis XVI. So renowned was he that until the first part of the nineteenth century, contemporaries and collectors referred to him simply as Ferdinand. [1] He collaborated with the finest cabinetmakers of his age, including Jean-Henri Riesener, Martin Carlin, and Jean-Baptiste Tuart. [2] According to the Count de Salverte, "Le soin que Ferdinand Bury apportait a ses travaux lui merita du succes." [3]
Bury became a master in the guild of ebenistes in 1774 and set up shop in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine in Paris. A German, he employed German workers. Apparently hot-tempered, he once started a drunken brawl with the merchants in the shop next door. Bad investments and the French Revolution ruined him, and Bury declared bankruptcy late in 1789. [4] His richly decorated pieces, such as cylinder desks, were collected by the rich and famous, including several of the Rothschild family, and can sell today for as much as half a million dollars. [5] [6]
Notes
- ^ Count Francois de Salverte, Les Ebenistes du XVIII Siecle
- ^ Kenny, P.M.; Lannuier, C.H.; Bretter, F.F.; Leben, U. (1998). Honoré Lannuier, Cabinet Maker from Paris: The Life and Work of a French Ébéniste in Federal New York. Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.). p. 20. ISBN 9780870998355. Retrieved 2017-11-20.
- ^ Salverte, op cit
- ^ All the foregoing is from Kenny, op. cit. See also J. Kalfa, Ferdinand Bury: une estampille fameuse pour un homme mal connu (2003)
- ^ Miller, J. (2005). Furniture. DK Publishing. p. 174. ISBN 9780756672881. Retrieved 2017-11-20.
- ^ "BY FERDINAND BURY, CIRCA 1780". Christie's. Retrieved 2017-11-20.
