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makers / Charles-Guillaume Winckelsen
Charles-Guillaume Winckelsen
Biography
Winckelsen first came to prominence for the excellence of his work from his address at Rue Val-Sainte-Catherine, subsequently at 21 rue Saint-Louis, and he later worked from Rue de Turenne; specialising in fine furniture, lighting and decoration of the ancien regime.
Though his furniture is comparatively rare, Winckelsen's pieces are consistently made to the highest standard, with the bronze mounts arguably some of the best ever produced in nineteenth-century France. Established in 1854, Winckelsen employed some of the greatest talent in France, including the once independent Jean-Louis-Benjamin Gros, who was named as an expert judge in winding up the Winckelsen firm when it ceased trading in 1871. The bronze chaser Joseph-Nicolas Langlois also joined, the quality of whose work raised the firm to the highest echelons of Paris chasing. His clients included the Prince Radziwill and the Marquis de Lilliers. Denis Ledoux-Lebard notes the small output of the company, since quality was his main aim; after his death, his stock and workmen were taken over by Henry Dasson for the immense sum of 14,000 francs, given the average worker earned less than 5 francs a day.
