L'Escalier de cristal
L'Escalier de cristal ( 1804 - 1923 ) is a former Parisian luxury goods business , which was founded in 1804 by Marie DESARNAUD, born Marie Jeanne Rosalie Charpentier. Celebrated during the restoration period , she was the first shopkeeper of her time to offer clocks, candelabra and vases, ornaments that combine cut crystal glass and gilded bronze .
The business encouraged artists to design in the then new Japanese style and was thus a major pioneer of Japonism in France and thus in Europe.
history
L'Escalier de cristal, founded by Marie Desarnaud in 1804, was located in Palais royal nos. 162 and 163 . The business was taken over by Lahoche and Boin around 1847 , then Lahoche and Pannier in 1857, and finally by Pannier Frères from 1890 to 1923 . When she founded her house, Marie Desarnaud had the idea of combining cut crystal with gilded bronze. The quality of her creations was unanimously recognized during the exhibition of products of French industry in 1819, where she received the gold medal with the Duchess of Berry's dressing table.
It was only towards the end of the reign of Louis-Philippe , on the initiative of the Pannier brothers, that the business expanded to include the furniture trade and began around 1870 with the production of handicraft furniture, which was offered for sale, both creations and reproductions of furniture from the 18th century.
Furniture reproductions
L'Escalier de cristal specialized in copying furniture from the 18th century. The quality and finish of these pieces of furniture are such that they were sometimes taken for the originals. Their origin could only be determined during restorations, as the dismantling had produced the stamp of L'Escalier de cristal. Conversely, André Mailfert sold counterfeit furniture that was stamped as authentic antique furniture.
Sino-Japanese furniture
The Japanese pavilion at the World's Fair of 1867 revived the taste for objects from the land of the rising sun in France . Under the influence of Henry Pannier looking for new outlets, L'Escalier de Cristal encouraged Parisian carpenters to make Japanese-style furniture . Gabriel Viardot takes up already existing creations and reinterprets them in a "Sino-Japanese genre", which is, however, adapted to European tastes.
Henry Pannier Notebooks
Henry Pannier made a habit of drawing a sketch of every piece of furniture or object sold by L'Escalier de cristal or during major public auctions of the time and recording these drawings in notebooks.
Between 1870 and 1924, Henry Pannier designed 2,800 pieces of furniture and furnishings, adding the name of the object, the date of sale and the price to each sketch.
L'Escalier de cristal was finally closed in 1923.
Awards
- Gold medal at the exhibition of products of French industry from 1819
- Gold medal at the Paris World Exhibition in 1900 .
Artist
Non-exhaustive list of artists who created for L'Escalier de cristal:
- Émile Gallé : wooden table, Vernis Martin , polychrome decoration in half-relief, visible in the Musée de l'École de Nancy .
- Gabriel Viardot : Japanese style furniture
- Edouard Lièvre : Furniture making and chiseled bronze furniture in the Japanese style
- Eugène Rousseau : vases made of solid crystal. L'Escalier de Cristal sometimes adds a Japanese mount in chiseled bronze
- Nicolas Henri Jacob : Cabinet Furniture
Individual evidence
- ↑ PANNIER Carnets de croquis de meubles ... 2800 meubles et objets d'ameublement ... Retrieved on July 3, 2020 (French).
- ^ Philippe Thiébaut: Contribution à une histoire du mobilier japonisant: les créations de "l'Escalier de Cristal" . In: Revue de l'Art . tape 85 , no. 1 , 1989, pp. 76–83 , doi : 10.3406 / rvart.1989.347791 ( persee.fr [accessed July 3, 2020]).
- ^ Philippe Thiébaut: Contribution à une histoire du mobilier japonisant: les créations de "l'Escalier de Cristal" . In: Revue de l'Art . tape 85 , no. 1 , 1989, pp. 76–83 , doi : 10.3406 / rvart.1989.347791 ( persee.fr [accessed July 3, 2020]).
- ↑ PANNIER Carnets de croquis de meubles ... 2800 meubles et objets d'ameublement ... Retrieved on July 3, 2020 (French).