BY MAISON GIROUX, THE MARQUETRY BY FERDINAND DUVINAGE, PARIS, CIRCA 1880

Maison Giroux under the leadership of Ferdinand Duvinage and his wife, Rosalie-Eléonore-Antoinette, developed a special technique patented as ‘une mosaïque combiné avec cloisonnement métallique’ first shown at the 1878 Exposition universelle in Paris. As Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide suggests, they are almost always marked and etched FD and Bté (short for ‘breveté’ or patent) and were likely created only between 1877, when the patent was granted, and 1882 when Madame Duvinage ceded her directorship of the firm.