During the reign of France's last Emperor, Napoleon III, his wife, Empress Eugenie, had great impact of fashion and decorative style. A revival of the Napoleonic era of 60 years earlier left Napoleon III's reign known and Second Empire. Exotic style, and typical Empire style with all its foreign conquest motifs gained footing, and expanded throughout Europe, UK (Victorian) and abroad. The Chinoise or Japonaise motifs experienced particular popularity, and the material "papier maché" was new in the early 2nd Empire, often combined as you see in this Napoleon III bread set. Complete and without damage, it has the large bread tray in brilliant Chinese red, along with an equally red crumb tray and crumb brush. While they're not exact match (bread tray and the other 2 pieces), they came from the same disbursed estate in France, together, and we'll leave them together.
Very good to excellent condition for age and type. The 3 pieces are both decorative and also useable. The brush is lush with boar bristles, and the set has no chips or cracks, which makes it rather rare to find. The more so in this color. The decorative figures are transfers on the crumb tray and brush, and a slightly different one, same process, on the larger tray or centerpiece. Measurements noted on photos. Large tray is nearly 14" in length.
