This furniture ensemble, created by the Belgian architect and designer Gustave Serrurier-Bovy (1858-1910), was acquired by the King Baudouin Foundation in 2018. It came from a private house and includes a clock, a chandelier, a card table, a three-piece suite, an armchair, a desk and a console. Most of the pieces will be exhibited at the Brussels Museum of Art & History, in the new 19th and 20th century decorative arts section currently undergoing redevelopment.
The ensemble was created for the Serrurier-Bovy company’s pavilion at the 1910 World Fair in Brussels and is one of the last to be created by the architect-designer before his unexpected death shortly after the Fair closed.
Gustave Serrurier-Bovy is internationally renowned for the innovative nature of his designs. Together with Paul Hankar, Victor Horta and Henry Van de Velde, he was one of the leading Art Nouveau architects. In 1884, Gustave Serrurier-Bovy went to Great Britain, where he worked for a short time as a furniture maker, before establishing his own company later that year in his home city of Liege. He went on to open branches in Brussels (1896), Paris (1899), The Hague (1904) and Nice (1907). His designs gradually evolved towards a simpler style that was more suited for large-scale manufacturing.
