Cabinet Forming A Jewelry Greenhouse From Maison Klein In Paris. 19th Century

Freestanding cabinet, forming a jewelry greenhouse from Klein in Paris. Second half of the 19th century. It opens with two drawers and a door on the front (a very slightly different grip); as well as by the upper shelf revealing a compartment lined with green felt. The lid marked "Klein, boulevard des Italiens in Paris".

The jewelry greenhouse is entirely covered in brown leather on a mahogany core. Painted decorations of two gallant scenes. Numerous gilded bronze ornamentations (columns, angel figures).

August Klein was originally a bookbinder and leatherworker who founded a small objects store in Vienna in 1847. His business prospered, he exhibited at the Universal Exhibition in Vienna, Paris, London and also Melbourne. He imported many objects and leather and enamel into different countries including France where he opened a store on Boulevard des Italiens in Paris.

This piece is representative of the taste for Historicism that developed in Vienna in the second half of the 19th century. Thus, the taste for objects from the 16th and 17th centuries developed. Many enamelled shaped pieces appeared. These pieces were strongly influenced by the Renaissance and the taste for cabinets of curiosities or chambers of wonders in vogue in the 16th and 17th centuries.