Eugène Gaillard, Samuel Bing and Émile Gérard: An Art Nouveau Trio for the 1900 Exhibition

Long thought lost, it is now back in the spotlight over 120 years after causing a sensation at the 1900 Universal Exhibition. This bench by Eugène Gaillard, which appears in an archive photograph now in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, was presented in the anteroom of the "Art Nouveau Bing" pavilion. It is thus a unique piece and a historic one at that, seen by over 50 million visitors in a France with barely more than 40 million inhabitants at the time. An Ideal Nature While many of Gaillard's furniture items for the dining room and bedroom of this pavilion are now in museums or have already been through the auction room, this was not the case with this bench. It was found in Limoges during an inventory in the apartment of the descendants of porcelain maker Émile Gérard…