REF NO : B74620

Alphonse Giroux

A Fine Transitional Style Gilt-Bronze and Sèvres Style Porcelain Mounted Jewellery Box on Stand

France, Circa 1890

£15,000

A Fine Transitional Style Gilt-Bronze and Sèvres Style Porcelain Mounted Jewellery Box on Stand, Attributed to Alphonse Giroux. This exquisite petite...

Dimensions

Height: 78 cm (31 in)
Width: 26 cm (11 in)
Depth: 23 cm (10 in)
REF NO : B74620

Description

A Fine Transitional Style Gilt-Bronze and Sèvres Style Porcelain Mounted Jewellery Box on Stand, Attributed to Alphonse Giroux.

This exquisite petite jewellery box on stand has a hinged concave moulded top, mounted with foliate porcelain plaques, the plateau with fine gilt-bronze enacadrement inset with a Sèvres style oval porcelain plaque depicting ladies in a pastoral setting and opening to a blue velvet lined interior. The shaped apron to each sided is mounted with porcelain plaques depicting exotic birds; the uprights mounted with rectangular foliate plaques and united by a galleried undertier inset with an oval floral plaque. The hipped cabriole legs are similarly embellished and put down on scrolling gilt-bronze feet.

A superb example of the remarkable works of art being produced in Paris in the second half of the 19th Century, combining luxurious materials and exquisite workmanship, this fine jewellery box on stand or ‘coffret à bijoux’ is almost certainly attributable to the celebrated firm of Alphonse Giroux Et Cie. Renowned for their luxurious small items of furniture and curiosities, a number of related items by Giroux are known; mounted in gilt-bronze and with fine porcelain plaques they are stylistically similar, and given the quality of the present example would suggest a strong attribution.

The fashion for porcelain, mounted onto exquisite furniture pieces, was brought to the novelty seeking Parisian connoisseurs by ébénistes working for the principal marchand merciers around 1760. The original pioneer was Simon-Philippe Poirier, the celebrated marchand mercier, working chiefly with the ébéniste Martin Carlin, and who ordered his first plaques in 1758. These items were rare and sought after even at the time of their production, and most examples now reside in museum collections.

The nineteenth century saw a revival for this fashion in porcelain-mounted furniture, with very fine and exquisite pieces being designed such as this very rare jewellery box on stand.

French, Circa 1860.

Date

Circa 1890

Origin

France

Medium

Gilt-Bronze and Porcelain

Alphonse Giroux

Maison Giroux was founded by Francois-Simon-Alphonse Giroux in 1799 at 7 rue du Coq-Saint-Honoré, Paris. The store, specialising in small luxury goods and curiosities, expanded rapidly in the first half of the nineteenth century.

Francois oversaw the manufacture and design of small items of furniture until his death in 1848. He won the ‘Prix de Rome’ in 1825, and a silver medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1834.

Under the direction of Giroux’s sons, Alphonse-Gustave and André, the company flourished and became by the late 1860’s one of the most pre-eminent Parisian Maison de Haute Luxe (luxury stores).

In 1867, Ferdinand Duvinage, a cousin of Alphonse-Gustave and André, took over the management of the business alongside a Mr Harinkouck.

Bibliography:
Ledoux-Lebard, Denise. Les Ebénistes du XIX siècle, Les Editions de l’Amateur, (Paris), 1984; pps. 223-30.

D. Kisluk – Grosheide. Maison Giroux and its ‚‘Oriental‚’ Marquetry Technique, The journal of the furniture history society, vol. XXXV, 1999, p. 147-172.

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