Fabulous antique French Napoleon III Grand Tour style souvenir jewel casket, a lovely box with eglomise (reverse painted) glass scene of the Paris Hotel de Ville! We recently acquired several of these wonderful little French souvenir caskets and will be adding them in the coming weeks. This one with very thick beveled glass panels, four panels around the sides and the larger top with the scene transferred & painted on the back side.
The Hotel de Ville is the city hall of Paris, France, standing on the Place de l'Hotel-de-Ville Esplanade de la Libération in the 4th arrondissement. The south wing was originally constructed by Francis I beginning in 1535 until 1551. The north wing was built by Henry IV and Louis XIII between 1605 and 1628. It has been the headquarters of the municipality of Paris since 1357.
"Eglomise" is the term applied to the back-painted glass panels in these old French souvenirs. Most of them date 1800s, though they were made up through about 1910 in this manner, too. Later ones often have a photo set in instead. The early ones are our favorites, sometimes a screened ink-line like drawing that is then hand colored, or sometimes a full miniature painting original, all worked on the back side of a panel or convex plaque of glass. There are sometimes open spots left and a final step is application of thin mother of pearl panels so that the windows shimmer with pearlescent light, or architectural details are pearl - you can see how fun those are. I'm listing a whole collection from this genre, one at a time
Very good condition. Possibly a tiny nip or two to the glass panels but no larger chips or cracks. The eglomise scene is in great shape though I can't tell if there is a little 'bubbling' or if those are whitish clouds to the blue sky area. There is a red padding in the base, not original and it actually looks better without it. See pictures for all measurements.
