Star Mirror 1942: Maxime Old, Modern Art Furniture Designer

Version française de cet article Star MirrorThe Star Mirror genesis dates back from E.J. Ruhlmann.

 

As Ruhlmann requested when he dies his company is liquidated. Several customers then keep in touch with Maxime Old. They liked him within the Ruhlmann design office and wish to go on with him. Some will be especially regular, private and professional customers.

Maxime makes this Star mirror in 1942 for the Parisian flat of one of them. It must be integrated in his flat formerly decorated by Ruhlmann but meanwhile ten years have gone by, as well as the beginning of the Second World War. Mentalities have moved. While the writing desk must remain very Ruhlmann, for this mirror Maxime is free to innovate, to be himself. A proof: he will use this model for several later projects 100% Maxime Old.

The drawing is made so that it can be produced in different sizes and colours. However the “specimens” realized will all be identical. We see there again Maxime anticipation when he designs and his “laziness” for later productions. The reason is simple, only the creative act can passion him, capture all his motivation. If he reuses a model it is identically because he is focusing his energy on other pieces that are new creations. It is very positive in terms of quantity of unique pieces but it is rather a pity for many variations of his models still remaining in his portfolio. For the same reason he practically concretized no edition.

We try now to put the present circumstances right, we give to the customer the profit of realization on order, personalized, adapted, unique pieces … and we gladly draw from his “stock” of ideas, sketches and drawings never produced so far. Back to this Star mirror it is interesting to notice the relation of extreme reciprocal respect between he creator and the producer. The fitting of the peripheral mirrors can only be made manually and is at the extreme possible limit. A kind of mirror marquetry. A transposition/shifting principle Maxime will use with other materials.

Present releases of the Maxime Old Star Mirror are available here.

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