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Description:
Ref: JB601
Fine brass bound  rosewood  NÉCESSAIRE DE VOYAGE by L. Aucoc Ainé, Paris, with small Bramah type lock, the tightly packed compartmentalized interior lined with earth red shagreen leather and velvet and having silver topped cut crystal bottles and boxes.

Origin: Paris France;  Circa 1840: ; Materials: rosewood, brass, crystal, silver, shagreen leather.

Size: 26 cm wide by 20.3 cm by 9.8 cm:  10.3  inches wide by  8  inches by  3.9  inches.

Condition: good overall; one of the bottles has a chip from the base;  working  Bramah type lock and key: see images

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The lock plate is signed "L. Aucoc aine a Paris"

Aucoc Ainéin was one of the most celebrated Palais Royal Maître tabletiers.

Aucoc was established in 1820 and produced a large range of luxury items. The emphasis was on quality. The packed nécessaires de voyage and elaborate toilette sets were particularly famous.

Casimir Aucoc first started his gold and silversmithing business at 154, rue St Honoré in Paris. The firm moved to 6 rue de la Paix in 1835. 

At the time this box was made the firm had a prominent show room at 6 Rue de la Paix

They were patronized by both the French and the English.

His clients included the House of King Louis Philippe, the House of Orleans, Napoleon III   and the Empress  Eugenie.

Rene Lalique, who would later be a defining artist in the Art Nouveau  movement was apprenticed to Aucoc to learn jewelry making from 1874-1876.

 

The French approach  to making a dressing box was different. 

The elegant boxes made in the Palais Royal area of Paris are packed tight. There are sometimes places to hide the personal under the bottles. The locks are strange to an English eye.  

Alexandre Dumas fils in The Lady of the Camellias (French: La Dame aux camélias) when describing the rooms of his heroine, Marguerite Gautier, which were now up for auction, writes:

“On a large table standing against one wall – it measured a good six feet by three – shone the finest treasures of Aucoc and Odiot. It was a magnificent collection, and among the countless objects so essential to the appearance of the kind of woman in whose home we had gathered, there was not one that was not made of gold or silver. But it was a collection that could only have been assembled piece by piece, and clearly more than one love had gone into its making.

I, who was not the least put out by the sight of the dressing-room of a kept woman, spent some time inspecting its contents, neglecting none of them, and I noticed that all these magnificently wrought implements bore different initials and all manner of coronets.” (translation David Coward)

Casimir Aucoc first started his gold and silversmithing business at 154, rue St Honoré in Paris. The firm moved to 6 rue de la Paix in 1835.

Aucoc was particularly famous for the their exquisite NÉCESSAIRE DE VOYAGE, nécessaires à la toilette, tightly packed with tools and accessories for personal grooming

 

 

 All the silver tops and lids are clearly marked with both Aucoc's mark and  French mark for silver  (Poinçons de argent). The larger pieces are used with  

 The lids of the larger boxes are stamped AUCOC AINÉ   and with a losange  or diamond shaped  makers mark (Le Poinçon de Maître)  A Rooster above the initials L A  and a five pointed star.  

 Magnified detail of the Poinçon: Head of Minerve with a small 1 near the forehead was used to mark silver of  950 standard. from 1838. 

 The French silver  hallmarks:

 The second form of French guarantee mark, for small objects a boars head is used on the silver bottle caps. The l dap of one of the bottles is dented.

Inside the caps are gilded. once, both AUCOC AINÉ   and  a losange  or diamond shaped  makers mark (Le Poinçon de Maître)  A Rooster above the initials L A  and a five pointed star Are stamped.    

The lock plate is signed "L. Aucoc aine a Paris"

The brass Bramah type lock mechanism drives a steel double bolt. The Bramah mechanism is considerably smaller than that used on contempory English boxes.

 The crystal glass bottles have a collar as well as lid. This would be unusual in an English box. 

The faded brick red leather has a shagreen texture.

 One of the perfume bottles has a chip out of the bottom.

There is a lift out self standing mahogany framed mirror in the lid.

 Front view: