Henri Rapin made his mark as a painter and interior designer. He began his artistic career as a pupil of Jean-Leon Gerome, a painter of the neoclassical school. He began exhibiting in salons around the turn of the century and in 1910 exhibited simply designed furniture made of elaborate materials. He was appointed head of the prestigious Manufacture de Sevres and of the Art Department at the School of Decorative Art in 1924. He contributed to the success of the 1925 Art Deco Exhibition in the position of deputy chairman of the Association of Decorative Artists, and as an artist had a hand in the design of many of the pavilions. His talents were given particularly full play in the "Ambassade de France" pavilion where he designed a hall and a dining room, and in the pavilion of the Manufacture de Sevres, whose garden he designed. In constructing the Residence of Prince Asaka, the prince himself entrusted the interior design to Rapin in 1929. Rapin's work includes seven rooms: the Great Hall, the Grand Guest Room, the Great Dining Hall, the Small Guest Room (closed to the public), the anteroom, and, upstairs, the Prince's Study and Living Room. He also designed the Perfume Tower; the walls of the Grand Guest Room and the Small Guest Room (closed to the public); and the oil painting in the Great Dining Hall.
Two works by Blanchot can be seen in the Residence of Prince Asaka: the marble relief in the Great Hall and the relief on the wall of the Great Dining Hall.
Rene Lalique was a jewelry designer and glassware artist who was trained in sketching and engraving techniques in Paris and London. His gained fame as a designer of Art Nouveau accessories, and exhibited sensual jewelry decorated in motifs of plants, insects, and nudes at the 1900 Paris World Exposition. In 1906, he was commissioned to design perfume bottles for Coty, a dealer of perfume. Using this opportunity to try his hand at designing glassware, he became an expert in the techniques of frosted pressed glass and in blown glass into a mold. Armed with the skills for manufacturing glassware that was highly artistic yet suitable for mass production, he created an enormous variety of artifacts, from tiny utensils, such as car mascots, to moumental works. Enjoying a high reputation as a glassware artist, Lalique had his own pavilion in the 1925 Art Deco Exhibition, and constructed a monumental glass fountain beside it.
Lalique's work is represented at the Residence of Prince Asaka by the front entrance door with glass relief and by the chandeliers in the Grand Guest Room and the Great Dining Hall.
