Unique Piece For The Coty House By Charles Piguet Decorative Arts Exhibition From 1925 In Paris

Unique piece commissioned by the Coty house from Charles Piguet (1887-1942), a Lyon-based ironworker, for his stores at 16 Place Bellecour in Lyon. This pair of doors stamped PIGUET LYON was presented at the 1925 Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris. The world-renowned Coty perfumery opened its first stores on Rue de la Boétie and Place Vendôme in Paris, then branches in Moscow, New York, London and Buenos Aires. François Coty called upon the glassmakers René Lalique and Baccarat, the decorator Léon Bakst and the painter Jean Helleu, among others, to enhance his perfumes. The pair of doors features a fountain as a central motif, topped with a bouquet of flowers in a woven basket flanked by a rose and a camellia flower. Its elegant bronze handles depict tied rushes. The 122 cm high imposts also offer a fountain in the central motif, flanked by six panels with framed bouquets of flowers. They have two opening systems, the main one with a passage of two times 109 cm, or 218 cm wide by 330 cm high, which could easily be reduced to 208 cm, and by two pedestrian doors included 75.5 cm wide by 205.5 cm high. The whole is originally nickel-plated, traces of residual paint and slight oxidation in places. Some frames of the brass windows are missing or in need of restoration. Bibliography: Our latest photos - Detail and door of the Coty stores in Lyon, Modern ironwork (2nd Series), at the Decorative Arts Exhibition of 1925, by Henri Clouzot, curator of the Galliera museum, published by Charles Moreau in Paris. - The entrance gate of the Coty house. Ironwork of the day by Gabriel Henriot, curator of the Forney library, Paris, Librairie Générale de l'Architecture et des Arts Décoratifs, Ch. Massin & Cie, publishers, 1929. You can visit our site: www.claudeaugustin.com