ESSENTIAL..SMOKER'S NECESSARY Neo-Etruscan style in very finely chiseled gilded bronze decorated with gadroons and wavy frets, palmettes and whorls, lotus stems, stylized acanthus foliage and rosettes, scrolls and vine branches.

To this ornamental repertoire inspired by the Pompeian style also called Neo-Greek style ou Neo-Etrusque- augured by the decoration and furnishing of the stunning Pompeian House (1856-1860) built in Paris, avenue Montaigne for Prince Napoleon -, is joined by an iconographic fantasy suggestive of the " Artificial Paradises » prized in the 19th century by a high-flying male fringe: medallions with antique profiles of male divinities (Bacchus) and feminine (Ceres), representation in the form of a bearded man of a noble patrician initiated into Dionysian pleasures; exquisite satyr blower masks animate the trilobed shape of the plateau of this rrefined smoker requiredr composed of four pieces (covered tobacco jar, cigarette cup, match cup and ashtray).

   With its refined silhouette, the sober curve of its containers with shapes derived from the ceramics of Ancient Etruria, its discreet adornment with deliberately chosen ornamental motifs, this Smoker's Necessary, original creation of a bronzer and manufacturer of« Articles from Paris » established is to be compared with certain achievements made by the sculptor-chiser Ferdinand Levillain (1835-1905) for the Barbedienne House.

  -A descriptive and commented notice of this decorative object has been written.

  -Related literature: Crouzot Henri, From the Tuileries to Saint-Cloud: decorative art under the Second Empire, Paris: Payot, 1925; Gay-Mazurel Audrey, « A Neo-Greek decor, the Pompeian House of Prince Napoleon", in: Spectacular Second Empire, Exhibition Catalogue, Paris, Musée d'Orsay, 2016, pp.148-157; Personne, Nicolas, Napoleon III's Smoking Rooms at the Châteaux of Compiègne and Fontainebleau, 2003;