Art Deco style: the pieces, the book, the record, the film

From 1920 to 1939, between the 1925 Exposition des arts décoratifs and the war, Paris imposed a geometric luxury: exotic woods, lacquers, shagreen, gilt bronze, fans. Ruhlmann, Dunand, Gray and Perzel worked for a clientele of ocean liners and private mansions. It was the last style in which furniture was an object of haute couture.

The pieces

Eileen Gray's Bibendum armchair (1926), rolls of leather on a chromed base, reissued by ClassiCon: between €5,000 and €8,000 new; we devote a Décryptage to Gray in January. Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann's furniture, Macassar ebony and ivory inlays: hundreds of thousands of euros at public sale, out of reach. Jean Dunand's lacquers, the same order of magnitude. More accessible, a lamp or a wall light by Jean Perzel, frosted glass and nickel-plated bronze, between €1,500 and €5,000 vintage.

The book

"Art Deco" by Alastair Duncan (Thames & Hudson), the survey: furniture, glass, fashion, architecture. For a single cabinetmaker, Emmanuel Bréon's "Ruhlmann".

The record

The Quintette du Hot Club de France, Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli, recordings from 1934: string jazz, no drums, played in the clubs of those years. Cole Porter and Josephine Baker, the same decade, for the sung version.

The film

"The Great Gatsby" by Baz Luhrmann (2013), sets and costumes by Catherine Martin: an Art Deco reconstructed, saturated, but true in its motifs. For the period itself, "Metropolis" by Fritz Lang (1927), where the style becomes a city.

The palette and the materials

Macassar ebony, shagreen, black lacquer, gold, ivory, bottle-green velvet, bevelled mirrors, fan motifs. Light softened by frosted glass. To achieve it without copying: a dark grained wood, a gilt metal, a single geometric motif, smooth surfaces.

The address

Mallet-Stevens's Villa Cavrois at Croix, near Lille, to which we devoted a Maison ouverte. The Villa Empain in Brussels, revisited by our Carnet of 22 December. The liner Normandie (1935) is gone, but its furniture and lacquers come up for sale.

Spotted a console or a lamp in this spirit? Scan it on Beyit: the period, the workshop when it can be identified, the market value — and the reissues.