Bonbonnière by the Alphonse Giroux House
This bonbonnière is decorated on its glass section with engraved flowers. The gilt-bronze mount raises the bowl on four feet and features a naturalistic design inspired by bamboo. On the inner part of the mount, the impressed mark “MAISON ALPH. GIROUX PARIS” can be found.
The firm ranks among the most important of the 19th century. Its reputation is vividly illustrated in the weekly journal Panthéon de l’Industrie of January 13, 1878:
“Who does not know this famous shopfront, at the corner of Boulevard des Capucines, always surrounded on three sides by a large crowd who never tire of admiring the paintings, objets d’art and objets de fantaisie, and the elegant novelties that make the Maison Alph. Giroux the foremost establishment for the ‘Paris article,’ in other words, a veritable museum?”
The objects presented by the Maison Giroux were particularly appreciated and continued to be so for many years afterwards, as illustrated by the interior of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, where, in one of the rooms, an identical bonbonnière can be seen.
Bibliography
-MURPHY, Robert, Les paradis secrets d’Yves Saint Laurent et de Pierre Bergé, Albin Michel, Paris, 2009.
France, circa 1865
Dimensions
Height: 12 cm
Width: 17,5 cm
