Objects : 2
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Object / Directoire-Consulat-Ier Empire/Directory-Consulate-1st EmpireA ceremonial inkstand for Napoleon’s “Grand Cabinet” at the Palais des Tuileries
This luxurious inkstand (GMLC-624-000) (which before 2021 had never been publicly exhibited) was made for the Grand Cabinet (formal office) of Napoleon I at the Palais des Tuileries by Martin Guillaume Biennais (1764-1843) and delivered there in December 1813. At the same time, the Emperor’s goldsmith supplied an identical copy for the palace of Fontainebleau(exhibited at the exhibition […]
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Object / Directoire-Consulat-Ier Empire/Directory-Consulate-1st EmpireA fall-front ‘secrétaire’ (writing desk)Although Biennais is today associated with gold and silverware, he began his career as a “tabletier” [maker of small objects] in Paris in 1788 (Arch. nat. Y. 9334). A tabletier’s shop was where you could buy any of a thousand small objects, useful or not,…