It is baptized Musée éphémère, that means museum for a little time, but in this case the adjective means temporary because the brand new museum of Chaumet, inaugurated with an exhibition on the theme nature, ephemeral has nothing. Indeed, it can count on a solid tradition started in 1780 with the founder, Marie-Etienne Nitot, who was the official supplier to Napoleon and the jeweler of the European aristocracy. A route that for centuries has produced a collection of extraordinary pieces, 55000 archive drawings, 500,000 photographs taken from the end 800 to the present day and 500 prototypes of tiaras made of nickel silver, an alloy of copper, zinc and nickel. The idea is just to tell a story little known through exhibitions that connect the past with the present.
For six months
For example, for the next six months jewelry lovers will have a unique opportunity to find out, on the ground floor of an 18th century building in the Place Vendome, place icon of Parisian luxury, home of the brand that is part of the LVMH group, style unmistakable: Promenade Bucolique is the name of the exhibition on his view of nature, represented by particular reasons of leaves, flowers and insects that are found in the fields and woods. In short, nothing grew. Among the 15 historical pieces, accompanied by original drawings, photographs in black and white and works of art, there is also the famous tiara created in 1811 for the Empress Marie Louise of Austria, Napoleon’s young bride. A tiara from the neoclassical design, consisting of 150 items representing the ears of corn circle on a frame of silver with 60 carats of diamonds. The effect is very light, as if the ears of corn were moved by the wind, and is important because a model has been revised several times by the jeweler in tiaras made during the Belle Epoque and pins produced after World War II.
Next to the wheat, even taken with sheaves miniature, there are other reasons: hawthorn, blades of grass, leaves of acanthus and ivy, typical subject of Romanticism and expression of feelings such as loyalty and attachment, of course. The connection to the present day is a limited set of jewelry that takes the style 1811 in a modern way, where the contrast between the shiny gold and brushed what gives a hyper-realistic, but not only for the occasion were designed from the bees, the main symbol of the empire (Napoleonic) from the body made of colored stones with peridots, mandarin garnets, opals, tourmalines, topaz and yellow sapphires, and wings in white and yellow gold, a delicate diamond-studded tunnel. The exhibition, however, is also a pretext for Chaumet to devote himself again to a theme abandoned in the 70 ‘. In the video you can see his new creations.
Promenade Bucolique
Until 30 January 2016
The musée Ephémère de Chaumet, 12 place Vendôme, Paris
From Monday to Saturday from 10:30 to 19
