Pont-a-mousson- Napoleon III Book Box With Burgauté Floral Decor

PONT-A-MOUSSON- Lovely basket-shaped work box in black lacquered cardboard with precious burgauté decoration of flowers, flower stems, rustic bouquets and bunches of grapes enhanced with fine foliage, scrolls, gold-painted lambrequins. Interior lined with pink moire. Work from the Napoleon III period in "Floral Style" from the famous Manufacture Adt Frères located in Pont-à-Mousson. Circa 1860. Adopting the profile of a basket such as the Grandes Dames of the 18th century sported it while botanizing during a walk in the gardens of Versailles or Trianon, this pretty rectangular book box with gracefully scalloped sides made of "lacquered cardboard" deploys on its whole a luxuriant and precious floral decoration. Its flaps, scalloped with a delicate braid patterned with fine windings of gold-painted stems strewn with mauve-tinted mother-of-pearl bindweed, are adorned with opulent floral bouquets. On a black lacquered varnished background, blooming country flowers - poppies, anemones, ranunculus, vesnes, ...- executed in mother-of-pearl enhanced with dazzling colors mingle their cheerful efflorescence with grasses, foliage painted gold or in polychrome. Tendrils, leaves and bunches of grapes framed by slender stalked flowerets that look like burgundy adorn its periphery. Touches of gold and a bluish tint, volutes, scrolls of leafy acanthus run on its handle. Open, the flaps reveal an interior lined with pink moire intended to accommodate these sewing accessories, embroidery, small fabrics and ribbons attached to the domestic pleasures of the female sex of the 19th century. Seduction of the neo-Louis XV shape, ornamental refinement using delicate materials (inlaid white or tinted mother-of-pearl), finesse of execution characterize this "fantasy" object in "lacquered cardboard", characteristic of the "floral" Napoleon III Style. hatched during the years 1850-1860. Like wallpapers (Le Jardin d'Armide, 1854, Manufacture Jules Desfossé), hangings or fabrics haloing walls, seats or smearing with their rural or even exotic blooms the toilets of elegant women of the Second Empire, this material, applied in the unprecedented creation of objects "of exquisite taste (boxes, book boxes, tea boxes, games boxes, toilet or office kits, hand screens, etc.) and "original" furniture (chairs, armchairs, pedestal tables, shelves, showcases, bonheurs-du-jour, screens, etc.) in papier-mâché covered with black lacquer with gum encrusted with mother-of-pearl, met with real enthusiasm among Parisian society at the time, in love with novelties and luxury. Also, Parisian merchants of Fancy Objects and Luxurious Furniture such as A.Giroux, Tahan did not hesitate to market within their prestigious Houses these decorated works, on a black lacquered background with "high gloss varnish ", "fresh and dazzling" floral "patterns" in the go 18th century barrel" prized by their clientele. . Of an expensive price - because requiring time and various manpower * -, those emanated essentially from the Establishment Adt Frères, owner of their production. Praised for having been able to make the most marvelous out of papier-mâché and pasteboard, this factory founded in 1839 by Pierre Adt (1820-1900) was rewarded at the Universal Exhibitions (Prize medal, 1854; Gold medal , 1878) for its "luxury articles of exquisite modern taste and incomparable finish in execution" (Le Panthéon de l'Industrie, 1897). Established in Forbach (1853) then in Pont-à-Mousson (1872), with sales branches in Paris (rue Turbigo), in London, it acquired an international reputation during the years 1860-1870. Witness of this rise, Paul Paulian wrote in 1885 "Lacquered or covered with a simple varnish, decorated with paintings or inlays" with floral motifs or of Chinese inspiration, "mobile decorative panels", furniture "created by MM.Adt decorate - just like the interiors of the luxury carriages of the great railway companies "- private libraries, lounges, boudoirs of Parisian apartments". * "Paper mache is particularly used for the composition of small pieces of furniture, of trays. The brilliance that distinguishes them is due to the number of layers of varnish applied to them (..). The most beautiful lacquers have no less than 10 to 16 coats. Care is taken to dry them after each layer of varnishing, then they are decorated with paint, mother-of-pearl, especially gilding, then they are given the necessary polish by rubbing them with the hand (...). It is a kind of compromise between Japanese art and Chinese art.However,Paper Mache,or Laque Fleur,takes favor in France.It throws diversity,originality into the whole of a furnishings". (Léon, Brisse, Album of the Universal Exhibition dedicated to HM Le Prince Napoléon, T.3; 1855-1856, p. 281. Work from the second half of the 19th century from the Napoleon III period produced by the Manufacture Adt Frères de Pont-à-Mousson Circa 1860 Materials: papier mâché, varnish and lacquer, polychrome and gold paint, white and colored mother-of-pearl.