A Box Set Signed Alphonse Giroux, Paris

Elegant blackened wooden box decorated with stylized clovers in mother-of-pearl and brass marquetry, arranged in a regular pattern on all sides. The whole is adorned with a finely chiseled bronze mount in the neo-Gothic style decorated with foliate scrolls, flowers and symmetrical volutes, notably framing the lock and hinges. The domed lid is topped with a central turned bronze handle, resting on an openwork plate with floral motifs. The interior, padded with pleated cream satin, suggests a function as a jewelry or glove box, typical of the luxury objects of Parisian high society of the Second Empire. Signed on the interior border in engraved brass: "Alph. Giroux & Cie in Paris, a house renowned for its refined furniture and objets d'art, a regular supplier to royalty and the Parisian elite.
Founded by François-Simon-Alphonse Giroux in 1799, the Maison Alphonse Giroux (1799-1881) was one of the most successful Parisian luxury stores of the 19th century. Like the great merchants of the Ancien Régime, it sold small pieces of cabinetmaking, tableware, and trinkets. Supplier to the Crown, the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie, its success is inseparable from the rise of a new industrial art. The sons Alphonse-Gustave and André Giroux took over the brand in 1838, which then became "Alphonse Giroux et Cie" until its absorption by Duvinage in 1867. Alphonse Giroux et Cie thus shone under the Restoration and then the Second Empire, where they supplied the members of the imperial court.
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