Pair Of Pots Pourris By The Crystal Staircase, Samson Porcelain From Napoleon III Period

Pair of Samson porcelain pots of Japanese inspiration and its neo-classical Louis XVI style mount. Superb gilding and finesse. Typical work of the production of the Crystal Staircase at the end of the 19th century The Crystal Staircase (1804-1923) is an old Parisian house created by Marie Desarnaud, born Marie Jeanne Rosalie Charpentier, in 1804. Famous under the Restoration, she was the first merchant of her time to offer clocks, candelabras and ornamental vases that combine cut crystal, porcelain or sandstone and gilded bronze. The Japanese pavilion at the Universal Exhibition of 1867 revived in France the taste for objects from the land of the rising sun. Under the influence of Henry Pannier, who was looking for new outlets, the Crystal Staircase encouraged Parisian cabinetmakers to produce furniture in the Japanese style. Like Gabriel Viardot who takes existing creations and reinterprets them in a “Chinese-Japanese genre” but adapted to European taste.