Chest of drawers

The wooden surfaces/structures of much of Bugatti ’s furniture were decorated with such diverse materials as parchment, ivory, copper, or pewter. These decorative elements often alluded to the vocabulary of Japanese, Moorish and Romanesque art and architecture. His rather revolutionary, highly original, and individualistic designs are considered important to us today because he was one of the first designers to break away from a slavish imitation of historic styles, and to challenge the conventional forms of furniture. The Bugatti chest of drawers and dressing table in the ROM’s collection were supposedly made for the artist’s own house after he moved to France about 1904.