Clément Mère (1861 - 1940) French, designer and furniture maker

Clément Mère (1861 – 1940) was born in Bayonne and active in Paris. He was a French painter, table-builder, artist and furniture builder.

Education

He studied painting with Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Biography

In the Art Nouveau style, he crafted bookbindings, embroidery, and artefacts. He entered the stable of Julius Meier-Graefe at La Maison Moderne, Paris, where he met Franz Waldraff, with whom he designed and created intricate ivory panels and boxes of wood and ivory, and supplied dress fabrics, buttons and other materials for dressmakers.

Furniture making

He specialised in making expensive furniture made of exotic woods and fabrics on his own. His training as a painter and maker of overlays inspired his cabinets, cases, desks and decorative work. Rather than Cubist, his forms were classically geometric. He used plaques of carved ivory, marquetry of exotic woods, panels of tooled leather and lacquer. His styles included intricate decorations based on insects, petals and shells

From 1910 Mere exhibited furniture at the Salon des Artistes Decorateurs and the Societe Nationale.

A selection of his works

Rare ivory box inlaid with red corals by Clement Mere

Sources

Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing. https://amzn.to/3ElmSlL

Russell, F., Read, J., & Garner, P. (1985). A century of chair design. Academy Editions.

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