Possibly Pierre Lottier

Possibly PIERRE LOTTIER (France, 1916 - Santa Susana, Spain, 1987).
Desk with chair and cupboard, Empire style.
Walnut wood, bronze decorations.
It shows marks of use and wear. Needs refinishing.
Measurements: 78 x 160 x 83 cm (table); 96 x 65 x 61 cm (chair); 175 x 203 x 60 cm (cabinet).

Set of furniture in French Empire style, probably designed by Pierre Lottier. A great connoisseur of period furniture, Lottier revived styles and deployed in them singular syncretisms to turn his pieces into unique works. The walnut desk features walnut root soffits flanked by stipe-like columns topped by bronze busts. This echoes the Egyptian influence that also inspired the Empire style. The cabinet stands on bronze claw feet. The top is lined with leather upholstery. The matching chair has the same motifs: female busts in gilded bronze, claw feet, studded leather upholstery on the edges. The cabinet is structured in three modules, the central one with a grille that reveals the shelves inside. The bust stipe motif compartmentalizes the modules.

Pierre Lottier was a prominent furniture designer and decorator born in France but based in Barcelona, active from the post-war period. Already in the sixties and seventies he had an important workshop, where important cabinetmakers of the new generation were trained. Lottier was mainly dedicated to the decoration of important houses in the Catalan capital, although he also designed others outside the city, such as Ava Gardner's house in Madrid.

Born into a family of artists (his father was the famous restaurateur and namesake Pierre Lottier who founded in 1880 "La Reserve" on the Côte d'Azur, one of the high society establishments most valued by millionaires and aristocrats), Pierre Lottier settled in Madrid in the 1930s, set apart by French society. He came into contact with the Spanish elite of the time as a procurer of important works of art, especially porcelain and oriental bronzes. In the 1950s he settled between Madrid and Barcelona. He collaborated with important design houses such as Casa Valentí or Casa Gancedo for the most historical fabrics. Pierre Lottier began emulating the career of Marc du Plantier and the famous Maison Jansen in Paris. His beginnings were based on the purity of the French "Grand Gout", mainly centered on Louis XV and XVI styles. Later, in the 1950's, it drifted to the English styles typical of the late 18th century: Hepplewhite, Adam, Chippendale, Sheraton or Gillwood were the surnames with which Lottier was most inspired. By 1970 the style drifted into a more modern wake. His new designs were based on Art Deco and classical rationalism, typical of a new, more intellectual society.