Exhibition at the Marc Maison Gallery: «The magic of a kaolin bouquet » A collection of furniture pieces and works of art decorated with Julien-Nicolas Rivart’s rare porcelain inlays, between 1850 and 1867.

Once again immersing us in the world of the Universal Exhibitions, the Marc Maison Gallery displays its large collection of works by Julien-Nicolas Rivart, of twenty-four unique pieces, all decorated with his porcelain flowers . From sumptuous “bureau plat” to the document folders, these rare luxury items will be offered to the amateurs’ eyes, from May 19 to August 15, 2017, in the new gallery of the Marché Cambo, in the Flea Market of Paris Saint-Ouen.

Julien-Nicolas Rivart is the well-known name of the inventor who revolutionized the aesthetics of porcelain decorated furniture by depositing his patent in 1849. Since the 18th century, the aristocracy has been an amateur of porcelain’s delicacy, and likes to see it decorate its furniture. Cabinetmakers then found a way to fix plaques of porcelain with a bronze mount, but failed to inlay it in the manner of marquetry or the Florentine mosaic of hard stones.

The jewelry boxes, sewing tables, desks, and other works presented in this exhibition thus have the refined quality of the items that were to be accepted at the Universal Exhibitions. The finest wood species and the most delicate woodworking techniques are here deploying all their beauty. Rivart participates indeed in the very first of these exceptional exhibitions, in 1851 at the Crystal Palace in London, and will be present at those of 1855 and 1867, with various furniture manufacturers.

With a romantic poetry, to which the generation of 'Eugénie de Montijo and Queen Victoria is receptive, the flowers of Rivart immortalize the ephemeral work of nature in porcelain. He collaborated during the 1850s with with a young painter, just stepping from the Sèvres Manufactory, Pierre-Joseph Guérou, whose brush has signed several of the exhibited works. The illusionist accuracy of these paintings has the great merit of not stiffening their subject in any way, giving the appearance of fresh flowers as on the first day.

The title of the exhibition pays tribute to the lyricism of the writer Auguste Luchet as he was standing in front of these incrustations : “One can not imagine, if one did not see, the magic that results from a bouquet of kaolin on a black background framed with gilding, detaching its fresh and lively colors from the darker environment of rosewood, amaranth or violet wood.” (The Industrial Art at the Universal Exhibition of 1867, 1868).

The most important museums preserve objects formerly acquired by Eugénie de Montijo (Palais de Compiègne), the Count de Manneville (Cité de la Céramique of Sèvres) or the Queen for the Palazzo Pitti (Florence, Italy).
This is a perfect example of technical emulation in the mid-nineteenth century, a fertile period for the invention of airship, pasteurization or the steam motorcycle. The invention of Rivart will only be mastered by him, so that the incrustations of porcelain produced between 1850 and 1867, when he died, are unique works.