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Lot Essay
A RUSSIAN IMPERIAL GIFT?
This ‘Boulle’ marquetry coffret peinture bears the insignia of the Imperial Crown of Russia, which at the date of its creation was tsar Alexander II (d. 1881). At this time it is probable that this paint box was a gift from the tsar to his eldest son, Tsesarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich (d. 1865), heir to the Russian throne, known in the family as ‘Nixa’, who was an amateur artist. The Tsesarevich, a young man of great promise, of decided opinions and highly cultured, died at the brutally young age of twenty-one after contracting meningitis. On his deathbed, he bestowed the hand in marriage of his fiancé, Princess Dagmar, second daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark, to his younger brother, Alexander, the future Alexander III (d 1894). It is fascinating to speculate that that this coffret, the paint bottles and pallet knives it contains, were once handled by the tragically fated young artist, Tsesarevich ‘Nixa’. The absence of an inventory number implies it was a personal object and perhaps left the Imperial collection before the revolution.
MAISON GIROUX
Maison Giroux was established at 7 rue du Coq-Saint-Honoré, Paris, in the late 1790s. An inheritance that descended from father to son, in the period when this ‘Boulle’ marquetry coffret peinture was created, the firm had expanded their operation as a supplier of fine paints and varnishes to become a maker and purveyor of luxury goods, which included boulle-work tables, cabinets, jardinières and small boxes. In the mid-1840s, their Parisian store occupied three floors, the rez-de-chausée devoted to art and painting materials, the mezzanine for stationery and frames and the first floor reserved for luxury articles (D. Kisluk-Grosheide, ‘Maison Giroux and its ‘oriental’ marquetry technique’, Furniture History Society, 1998, p. 149). Thus, given their continued interest in artist’s materials, it is highly likely that the present coffret was not only made by the firm, but fitted out by them too. An album entitled Meubles et Fantaisies, Maison Alp. Giroux à Paris, dated 1840, now in the Musée des Art Décoratifs, shows various coffrets including a related example en écaille dorée (CD 6495.69). In 1855, the business moved to a new corner building at 43 boulevard des Capucines and 24 rue Neuve des Capucines, and from this date until 1867, the family firm was run by Alphonse-Gustave Giroux. On 20 December 1855, La Sylphide reported, ‘il faut aller visiter les vastes galeries de la maison Alphonse Giroux, où les merveilles sont groupées et réunies avec une prodigalité féerique. Il y a de tout…’ (20 December 1855, p. 267).
Maison Giroux attracted a distinguished clientèle, supplying New Year’s gifts and objéts d’art to Louis XVIII, Charles X, Napoléon III
and Empress Eugénie. In 1839, Alexander Dumas, the novelist and dramatist, ordered an album cover, with binding embellished with a miniature and Imperial coat of arms, for one of his manuscripts to be presented to Tsar Nicholas I (d. 1855), Alexander II’s father, suggesting that from an early age the Russian Royal family knew of the high-quality objects produced by Maison Giroux.
This ‘Boulle’ marquetry coffret peinture bears the insignia of the Imperial Crown of Russia, which at the date of its creation was tsar Alexander II (d. 1881). At this time it is probable that this paint box was a gift from the tsar to his eldest son, Tsesarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich (d. 1865), heir to the Russian throne, known in the family as ‘Nixa’, who was an amateur artist. The Tsesarevich, a young man of great promise, of decided opinions and highly cultured, died at the brutally young age of twenty-one after contracting meningitis. On his deathbed, he bestowed the hand in marriage of his fiancé, Princess Dagmar, second daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark, to his younger brother, Alexander, the future Alexander III (d 1894). It is fascinating to speculate that that this coffret, the paint bottles and pallet knives it contains, were once handled by the tragically fated young artist, Tsesarevich ‘Nixa’. The absence of an inventory number implies it was a personal object and perhaps left the Imperial collection before the revolution.
MAISON GIROUX
Maison Giroux was established at 7 rue du Coq-Saint-Honoré, Paris, in the late 1790s. An inheritance that descended from father to son, in the period when this ‘Boulle’ marquetry coffret peinture was created, the firm had expanded their operation as a supplier of fine paints and varnishes to become a maker and purveyor of luxury goods, which included boulle-work tables, cabinets, jardinières and small boxes. In the mid-1840s, their Parisian store occupied three floors, the rez-de-chausée devoted to art and painting materials, the mezzanine for stationery and frames and the first floor reserved for luxury articles (D. Kisluk-Grosheide, ‘Maison Giroux and its ‘oriental’ marquetry technique’, Furniture History Society, 1998, p. 149). Thus, given their continued interest in artist’s materials, it is highly likely that the present coffret was not only made by the firm, but fitted out by them too. An album entitled Meubles et Fantaisies, Maison Alp. Giroux à Paris, dated 1840, now in the Musée des Art Décoratifs, shows various coffrets including a related example en écaille dorée (CD 6495.69). In 1855, the business moved to a new corner building at 43 boulevard des Capucines and 24 rue Neuve des Capucines, and from this date until 1867, the family firm was run by Alphonse-Gustave Giroux. On 20 December 1855, La Sylphide reported, ‘il faut aller visiter les vastes galeries de la maison Alphonse Giroux, où les merveilles sont groupées et réunies avec une prodigalité féerique. Il y a de tout…’ (20 December 1855, p. 267).
Maison Giroux attracted a distinguished clientèle, supplying New Year’s gifts and objéts d’art to Louis XVIII, Charles X, Napoléon III
and Empress Eugénie. In 1839, Alexander Dumas, the novelist and dramatist, ordered an album cover, with binding embellished with a miniature and Imperial coat of arms, for one of his manuscripts to be presented to Tsar Nicholas I (d. 1855), Alexander II’s father, suggesting that from an early age the Russian Royal family knew of the high-quality objects produced by Maison Giroux.