Atelier Viollet was featured in an article in The Financial Times “How to Spend It” section titled Master of art deco Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann. Focusing on the influential designs of Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann, the article demonstrates a variety of furniture designers who are inspired and revere the work of the Art Deco mastermind. Jean Paul Viollet has used Ruhlmann’s glamorous and intricate designs as inspiration for several pieces of his work, yet using the opportunity to also make something more current.
“While this client wants to immerse himself in art deco, most mix Ruhlmann-inspired pieces with other styles. This more eclectic approach can create an interesting visual frisson and accentuate some of the wilder graphic elements of deco. Atelier Viollet recently worked on a house in Austin, Texas, that mixed one woman’s passion for deco with her husband’s interest in Mayan culture. “She had bought original Ruhlmann pieces in Paris and New York,” says designer Jean-Paul Viollet, who owns the atelier, “and I was called on to design and fabricate additional furniture. The result is an assembly of valuable art deco with beautiful Spanish-style furniture, in a Mayan castle. It is totally unexpected, but the result is incredible.”
The Viollet range includes a Macassar-ebony bed, featuring a mother-of-pearl inlay and integrated nightstands instead of a headboard. The latter element is pure Ruhlmann, as is the top of Viollet’s dining table. The sunburst pattern on the surface is radiant with mother- of-pearl, rather than the ivory that Emile-Jacques would have used in the 1920s.”