Box.
Mother of pearl panel, gilt bronze, blue velvet interior, mirror, original label.
Circa 1830.
H. 8,5 - L. 17 - W. 11 cm.
The House of Alphonse Giroux, "the merchant to the princes", is an important Parisian manufacturer of furniture and luxury accessories, whose products were intended for an aristocratic and bourgeois clientele, established since 1799 at n°7, rue du Coq Saint-Honoré, then Boulevard des Capucines. Founded by François-Simon-Alphonse Giroux under the name "A. GIROUX à PARIS", it was taken over by the Giroux children and remained active under the name of "Alphonse Giroux et Cie" until 1867, when the management was taken over by Ferdinand Duvinage.
The shop was successful from the Consulate onwards and was popular with the royal family from the Restoration onwards. Thus, Louis XVIII asked Alphonse Giroux to make a golden carriage for the children of France, which is kept in the Carnavalet museum. The mother-of-pearl horses are harnessed in gold, and the carriage is decorated with emeralds and glazed in rock crystal.
Moving into the field of tableware and cabinetmaking around 1830, the shop continued to supply, amongst other things, beautiful objects for children and ladies: toys, sewing kits, work tables, boxes and mirrors.
This box is a perfect example of the objects that made this house so successful: refined and luxurious, it has an 18th century aesthetic. And it still bears the original label which reads "Au coq Saint Honoré
Rue du coq Saint Honoré n°7
Chez Alph. Giroux
... "
