Sunday, 22 January 2017

Garniture



The Golden Cabinet or Salon Louis XVI received some garniture today. Garniture, as you may know is "a set of decorative accessories, in particular vases" (as defined for us by the Oxford English Dictionary). In fact, four gouaches by landscape painter Van Barenberghe, two pairs of vases and a restored clock are now part of the precious artefacts decorating the cabinet. The two Molitor encoignures are also, at least for now, part of the room's furniture.

Two very rare golden vases from the Shang period of the Hang Dynasty are exhibited on the mantelpiece. In the corners of the room, each encoignure supports a pair of Japanese hexagonal jars from the 17th century in the Emari ware style. The four gouaches, at last, bring a welcome and soothing touch of blue to the decor, counterbalancing the omnipresent gold.

Oh, and did you notice we made the skirting board too?



4 comments:

  1. Quite amazing craftmanship on those golden vases.
    I imagine you don't find pieces in such good condition in every antique shop.Assuming they are originals and not reproductions.
    Especially a matching pair!
    Probably a rare and VERY expensive double pair of vases, and dare I say fragile.
    Quite amazing that they reached us in one piece through the centuries ... if only they could speak and reveal us their journey through time and history.
    What an epic journey it would be for sure!

    I will assume this room is not open to the public since it harbors such an amazing (and once again, fragile!) and priceless collection of antique artifacts.

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  2. As you mention several times somewhat worryingly, the furniture and vases in the room are very very precious indeed and quite fragile. For those reasons, the room is only shown by Madame la Duchesse or Her representatives to the persons deemed worthy by Her Grace to appreciate the collection. All furniture and accessories here are originals from their time period. As you point out , it is quite exceptional to find matching pairs of such ancient artefacts. And there is certainly more to come!

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  3. Very beautiful palace.Love the gold.CLASSY!
    #Chic #Versailles

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    1. Thank you so much for taking the time to leave such a nice comment on this blog Mister President! It's a great honour! I wish the rest of the Palace will soon be worthy of your looks too! I hope you'll be happy to know we're thinking about restoring to its former glory the great and long wall that used to surround and protect the entire hunting grounds of the palace. Of course, we'll have many of the beautiful original doors restored as well! God bless you Mister President! See you soon!

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