Jules Allard and Sons

The Parisian firm of Jules Allard and Sons (or "Jules Allard et Fils" in French), in business between 1878 and Allard's death in 1907 was one of the most notable interior decorating houses of the turn of the twentieth century. Their Paris origin reinforced the firm's credibility in composing "high style" French interiors for the American elite, at times employing authentic "boiseries", mirrors and chimneypieces, skillfully extended and adapted for results that were comprehensive, acceptably correct from an academic point-of-view and socially conservative. In the leading northeastern resort of Newport, Rhode Island alone, Allard and Sons worked on the interiors of The Breakers, where they cooperated with the decorator Ogden Codman, Jr., and at The Elms, Rosecliff, Marble House and Vernon Court.

The French salon supplied by Allard at the William Kissam Vanderbilt house at 660 Fifth Avenue helped launch the taste for French "dix-huitième" interiors in New York City. This room and what was called a "lady's room" in the house of William Henry Vanderbilt at 640 Fifth Avenue ensured the American reputation of Jules Allard's firm (founded in 1878), which traded in New York as Allard and Sons from 1885, becoming the pre-eminent source for French architectural interiors until the death of Jules Allard in 1907. The firm was subsequently absorbed by Lucien Alavoine and Company.

References

* [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1026/is_n2_v146/ai_15651076/pg_1 Paul F. Miller , "The Gothic room in Marble House, Newport" "The Magazine Antiques", August, 1994.]