Style Other / Ref.12437

L'ESCALIER DE CRISTAL, Crystal liqueur cabinet

This crystal liqueur cabinet with gilt bronze mount was created for the store L’Escalier de Cristal around 1850.

L’Escalier de Cristal was founded around 1808 by the widow Désarnaud. In 1829, she transferred the store to Jacques Boin, who partnered with Pierre-Isidore Lahoche in 1840. Thus, one of the flasks bearing a label “Lahoche Paris” allows us to date the set between this date and 1852, the year when Lahoche partnered with a new associate, Émile Pannier. L’Escalier de Cristal was then located at the Palais Royal, as indicated by the inscription placed on the top of the object’s gilded bronze mount.

This liqueur cabinet plays on transparency. Indeed, the bronze encases a crystal cut with a continuous oval pattern. The decoration of the bronze mount is particularly fine and elaborate: its four feet are adorned with acanthus leaves, while the lid is crowned by a blackberry echoing the function of the object; the lock bears the letters “ED”, perhaps the initials of the commissioner.

Inside is a tray supporting a set of four flasks with delicately curved necks and sixteen glasses with elegant baluster-shaped stems. The crystal is finely engraved with a decor of ivy and dots. The edges of each piece are highlighted with a golden rim.

Reflecting the eclecticism cherished by the 19^th century and the Napoléon III style, this liqueur cellar demonstrates a taste for detail and ornamentation matched only by the richness of the materials used for its design.