THREE EGYPTIAN MOSAIC GLASS FRAGMENTARY FISH INLAYS

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The adventure starts in the early 1880s when Jacques Groppi arrives in Alexandria, leaving Europe behind, to work as a confiseur-pâtissier and soon opens one of Cairo's most famous landmarks. Born in the village of Rovio, Switzerland, in 1863, he trained with his uncle Conza in Lugano, and later worked in Grasse and Marseille. On the suggestion of one of his cousins, he boards a ship for Egypt, a country full of opportunities promised by the upcoming opening of the Suez Canal. He marries Eugénie Biancalani in 1889, the love of his life, who becomes his business partner and together they create the first Pâtisserie Groppi in Alexandria. She take cares of the management side whilst he creates the pâtisseries. Groppi is very quickly known for the quality of its products and enjoys a flourishing reputation. "Quand [Jacques Groppi] fut maître en son métier lui vint le désir de voyager pour perfectionner, apprendre d'autres méthodes de travail, apprendre, toujours apprendre, ce qu'il fit toute sa vie." "When he finished his apprenticeship, [Jacques Groppi] decided to travel to perfect his skills, learn new work methods, learn, always learn, which he did his whole life." Georgette Groppi, 1990 "Que fais-tu ici ? Viens avec moi en Egypte. C'est un pays neuf qui après l'ouverture du Canal de Suez, promet un avenir florissant. " "What are you doing here ? Come to Egypt with me. This is a new country which, after the opening of the Suez Canal will offer a flourishing future." Georgette Groppi, 1990 The business becomes successful and in the early years of the 20th century, the couple sell it and then set up an export company: eggs to England, vegetables and quails to Europe. Jacques intends to go back to Switzerland at some point, but loses everything in miscalculated land investment. He is forced to start again so he decides to go to Cairo where he founds Maison Groppi on El Manakh Street. After studying in Neuchâtel in Switzerland, and in England, their son Achille joins the family business. The dynamic young man helps develop the pâtisserie-confiserie. During the First World War, Egypt becomes a strategic military centre, and Maison Groppi the social epicentre for visiting soldiers and sailors, who cannot get enough of the coffee, cakes and other treats on offer. At the end of the War, Jacques returns to Switzerland and Achille takes over the business. He then builds the premises on Midan Soliman Pacha, with office, laboratory, shop and restaurant all in the Art Nouveau style of the 1920s. French artists from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris come to decorate the Rotonde with lapis-lazuli and golden floral mosaics, alabaster and iron lamps, and Italian marble. The continued success of Maison Groppi is due to two intrinsic values: utmost standard of quality, and treating every order with the same care; from a simple birthday cake, to a one hundred-seat moonlit banquet at the Pyramids, to the official opening of the Aswan Dam for a thousand people. Achille is a perfectionist; he wants only the best ingredients in order to provide the best quality. He travels widely in order to bring back the latest technology to Cairo: la crème chantilly from France, and ice-cream from the United States of America. He has a continuous desire for knowledge, and a drive to always do better. The best, only the best. "Les clients qui partaient en vacances en Europe ne manquaient pas à leur retour de raconter à mon père [Jacques Groppi] qu'ils n'avaient pas vu d'aussi belles pâtisseries, tea rooms, ni à Paris, ni en Italie, ni gôuter d'aussi bons produits qu'au Caire chez Groppi." "Coming back from their European holidays, clients would tell my father [Jacques Groppi] that they never saw such beautiful pastries and tea rooms, neither in Paris nor in Italy, neither did they taste anything better than in Cairo at Groppi's." Georgette Groppi, 1990 In 1925, he founds L'Industrie du Froid, firstly to provide the elite Cairenes with much needed ice, and then to produce the famous Groppi Ice Cream, which continues to be popular up until the 1980s. During the Second World War, again in order to provide the best for his customers, he builds two farms: a dairy farm, north of Cairo in Shebine el Kanater with 500 gamoussa (Egyptian water buffaloes) and 500 cows, and another on the island of Geziret el Dahab, south of Cairo, where he grows fruit, vegetables, and herbs. After Achille's unexpected death in 1949, two members of the family take over the business until the early 1980s, thereby making Maison Groppi a continuous family-owned business for nearly 100 years. "[Groppi] devint bientôt le point de rencontre de tous les avocats, [...] des médecins, des banquiers qui venaient à midi. [...] L'après-midi, c'était au tour des dames pour l'heure du thé." "[Groppi] soon became the meeting venue for lawyers, [...] doctors, bankers during lunch. [...] In the afternoon, the ladies would come for tea." Georgette Groppi, 1990 Achille travels throughout Egypt indulging his passion for wildlife. One can imagine him sailing on the Nile observing the river bank scenes: gamoussa bathing, river birds on their backs, waiting for sunset, fishermen hauling in their nets, all surrounded by luxuriant vegetation. Looking for a testament of Egypt's natural beauty, Achille becomes infatuated with ancient glass. He forms one of the three best collections of Egyptian glass at this time, alongside that of King Farouk and Levy Benzion. He finds in ancient mosaic glass Egypt's finest and most complex works of art, the vibrant colours fused together to create a precise pattern, probably not dissimilar to Groppi's best confiserie creations. "Cela ne m'étonne pas qu'on consomme autant de glace [aux U.S.A.]. Tout est servi sur de la glace, on met des gros morceaux de glace carrés dans les verres et on vous sert continuellement de l'eau...le vin se servait chambré..." "It does not surprise me that so much ice is used [in the U.S.A.]. Everything is served on ice; they put big square ice cubes in glasses and continually pour water...wine was served at room temperature..." Achille Groppi, 1928 "Le Cosmopolitan Museum of Art (Metropolitan à présent) [a] la meilleure collection que j'ai vu hors du Caire [y compris[ Paris et Londres. [Mais il y a peu de verres], jusqu'à maintenant la collection Achille Groppi est unique peut-être?" "The Cosmopolitan Museum of Art (now Metropolitan) holds the best collection outside of Cairo, including Paris and London. [Not many glass pieces though], could the Achille Groppi collection be unique up until now?" Achille Groppi, 1928 The collection was first offered at Christie's, London, in December 1992, July 1993, and December 1993 under the title Per Neb, Parts I-III. This catalogue presents Part IV of this fabulous ensemble, a reflection of Achille Groppi's unerring eye for beauty and perfection. Laetitia Delaloye (The great-great-granddaughter of Jacques Groppi)

THREE EGYPTIAN MOSAIC GLASS FRAGMENTARY FISH INLAYS

PTOLEMAIC-ROMAN PERIOD, CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.-1ST CENTURY A.D.

Details

THREE EGYPTIAN MOSAIC GLASS FRAGMENTARY FISH INLAYS
PTOLEMAIC-ROMAN PERIOD, CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.-1ST CENTURY A.D.
Composed of polychrome canes simulating fish scales and fins, the heads with blue eyes circled with yellow and red, two fish with serrated teeth
9½ in. (14.1 cm.) long max. (36)

Provenance

The Groppi Collection, Switzerland; acquired in the 1920s-1940s.

Exhibited

Antikensmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig und Museum August Kestner Hannover, Köstlichkeiten aus Kairo!, 2008, nos 32a-c.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 20% on the buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

PUBLISHED:
Exhibition catalogue, Köstlichkeiten aus Kairo!, Antikensmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig und Museum August Kestner Hannover, 2008, p. 80, nos 32a-c.

The eye, mouth and fins appear to have been cut and inlaid after the scale pattern was fused and the fish put in place in a wall decoration, probably as a revetment panel. For similar examples, cf. D. B. Harden, Glass of the Caesars, Corning, New York, 1987, no. 9; cf. the Kofler-Truniger collection; Christie's, London, 5 and 6 March 1985, lot 226; and E. M. Stern and B. Schlick-Nolte, Early Glass of the Ancient World, 1600 B.C.-A.D. 50, Ernesto Wolf Collection, Ostfildern, 1994, no. 148.

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