Fruitwood Cabinet by Émile Gallé with a Stunning “Grenouilles” Design

This French Art Nouveau “Grenouilles” carved fruitwood cabinet by Émile Gallé features detailed and masterful marquetry depicting dragonflies and mushrooms in a lush, leafy landscape. The beautifully ribbed legs terminate in carved frog-leg feet, while the top gallery features an intricately pierced dragonfly design. The panel for the key escutcheon is cast in bronze with a complementary pattern (left and right) in carved wood, while the cabinet’s two doors, veneered with two dragonflies amongst the pickerel rush, open to reveal two interior shelves. The upper right-hand drawer is decorated with a frieze of carved-wood arrowheads, furled into arabesques, that wrap around the cabinet’s sides.