Period candlelit chandeliers and sconces

Bonjour and welcome to today's visit to l'Ecole du Bon Goût.  Today's subject is period candlelit chandeliers and sconces.  Today, in the average day we are usually subjected to lighting experiences which are of a totally new nature: i.e. florescent light, widescreen television images, computer screens images, and even strobe lights if you happen to be running a red light in your car.  Well, after a day in the 21^st century jungle of “aggressive light abrasions,” I recommend coming home to candlelight for its therapeutic as well as aesthetic rewards.  However, if candle light is not for you every night of the week, most chandeliers can be wired so that you can have them offer electrical light (on a dimmer S.V.P.) and not negate the possibility of using real wax candles too (think Saturday night dinner party after a whole week of 21^st century light abuse).

Here at Au Vieux Paris Antiques, as well as Patrick Dunne’s shops Lucullus Antiques in Breaux Bridge and New Orleans, one can find a wide selection of period chandeliers, sconces and candlesticks in various styles to choose from.  So light up your world and life with a period fixture and feel more relaxed and at ease enjoying le bon goût.

Below, see a photographic montage of six different fixtures of various styles now in stock at Au Vieux Paris Antiques.  Also, see a photo showing the impact the right period lighting fixtures can make even when they are not lit.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions or requests you might have by telephone (337) 332-2852, e-mail robertesmith@centurytel.net, or visit our website at www.auvieuxparisantiques.com.

Mes Amities,
Robert E. Smith

Visit the Au Vieux Paris Antiques homepage (click here)
Browse a sampling of the merchandise available (click here)

Mes Amities,
Robert E. Smith   (337) 332-2852
http://www.auvieuxparisantiques.com

lecojum “Snow Flakes” in bloom

Mes Amis,

Bonjour and welcome to today's visit to l'Ecole du Bon Goût.  With winter’s mantle lifting and the promise of spring in the air, today's subject is focused on the plant world.  I invite you to visit the very beautifully illustrated “blog” visit to Au Vieux Paris Antiques by Chris Wiesinger (www.southernbulbs.com/blog/).  Chris is a knowledgeable purveyor of “antique” or species flowering bulbs.  His website, not to mention his business, is very impressive.  Be sure to check out some of the past “blog” articles in the “Last Posts” and “Archives.”  He has been running a veritable Ecole du Bon Goût of “antique” flowering bulbs.  Chris can be contacted by email through his website at http://www.southernbulbs.com/contact-us/ or by phone at (903) 768-2530 ext 103.

Plan to treat your eyes to a visit here at Au Vieux Paris Antiques after about February 20 to see the lecojum “Snow Flakes” in bloom.  There will be a veritable color of white and green around the central “Tapis Vert” of the front garden.  These bulbs, now multiplied to about 2000, were rescued from the old Dr. Buchanan home on Buchanan street in Lafayette in 1984 just days before a flood of concrete transformed this charming 19^th century historic time capsule into a parking lot.  Fortunately, the home and Dr. Buchanan’s office were saved and moved to the Acadian Village in Lafayette and are on tour today.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions or requests you might have by telephone (337) 332-2852, e-mail robertesmith@centurytel.net, or visit our website at www.auvieuxparisantiques.com.

Mes Amities,
Robert E. Smith

Visit the Au Vieux Paris Antiques homepage (click here)
Browse a sampling of the merchandise available (click here)

Mes Amities,
Robert E. Smith   (337) 332-2852
http://www.auvieuxparisantiques.com

Dining tables

Mes Amis,

Bonjour and welcome to today's visit to l'Ecole du Bon Goût.  Today’s subject is dining tables.  With the holiday season in full tilt whirling all around us, it might be a relief to focus on a holiday tradition that really does go back farther than jingle bells do: Dining “à table” can be the true “bon goût” high point of the holiday season.

Finished dining tables are a fairly modern invention when it comes to looking at the big picture of the history of dining.  They are a late 18th century invention!  Previously, practically all dining tables were, even for the kings of France, simple “saw horse” like supports called “treteaux” which were  used to support a top or tops of unfinished planks of wood which were always covered with a generous (usually to the floor) white tablecloth.  One can see these illustrated, at least as far back as 11th century in depictions of the Last Supper.  There are even three or four early Louisiana treteaux tables known to me.

The invention, in the late 18th century, of a finished dining table with leaves was revolutionary and caught on very rapidly with nearly every household of sufficient means, having one, usually in walnut, mahogany or oak.  This is no surprise since they are so versatile, converting to many different sizes by means of adding or subtracting leaves.  They are on wheeled casters, so they are easy for one person to move them about; however, most importantly, they are just the most dramatic piece of furniture you could have in a dining room.

Here at Au Vieux Paris Antiques, we have in stock six late 18th century extension dining tables, ranging in length from 13 to 10 feet, one fixed round table, one folding square table, as well as a very ancient set of treteaux with a 19^th century top.

Also Patrick Dunne of Lucullus Antiques in New Orleans and Breaux Bridge always has a tasty selection of dining tables available for purchase.

Find following a selection of tables in stock here followed by two photographs of completely outfitted dining rooms, one Louis XIII and one early 19th century.

Dine “à Table du bon Goût” this Holiday season.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions or requests you might have by telephone (337) 332-2852, e-mail robertesmith@centurytel.net, or visit our website at www.auvieuxparisantiques.com.

Mes Amities,
Robert E. Smith

Visit the Au Vieux Paris Antiques homepage (click here)
Browse a sampling of the merchandise available (click here)

Mes Amities,
Robert E. Smith   (337) 332-2852
http://www.auvieuxparisantiques.com

French domestic candlesticks

Mes Amis,

Bonjour and welcome to today's visit to l'Ecole du Bon Goût.  Today's visit addresses the subject of French domestic candlesticks.  This subject is well covered in an article in the current Nov-Dec issue of Southern Accents Magazine, which is illustrated with photographs taken here at Au Vieux Paris Antiques and for which I was a consultant.  Find below two photo montages of candlesticks for sale here as well as a copy of the Southern Accents article.

Here at Au Vieux Paris Antiques we have an encyclopedic selection of candlesticks in both pairs and single models, ranging from late 17^th century Louis XIV models all the way through to Charles X, circa 1825. 

Light up your world and life with period candlesticks and enjoy le bon goût.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions or requests you might have by telephone (337) 332-2852, e-mail robertesmith@centurytel.net, or visit our website at www.auvieuxparisantiques.com.

Mes Amities,
Robert E. Smith

Visit the Au Vieux Paris Antiques homepage (click here)
Browse a sampling of the merchandise available (click here)

Mes Amities,
Robert E. Smith   (337) 332-2852
http://www.auvieuxparisantiques.com

Glassware

Bonjour and welcome to today's visit to l'Ecole du Bon Goût.  Today's subject is glassware.  The more we are bombarded with beverages and food served in plastic and styrofoam, throw away containers, the more we need to “imbibe” in the use of drinking vessels with visual, tactile, auditory and intellectual rewards.  In this fast paced, email laden, cell phone driven, traffic jam frustrated daily life, at the end of the day, we need some treats that are truly nourishing.  Whether it is a glass of Perrier or Dom Pérignon, it is definitely a more fulfilling experience if presented, and consumed in a hand blown, hand wheel faceted antique French glass.  Here at Au Vieux Paris Antiques, not to mention Patrick Dunne’s shop Lucullus Antiques in Breaux Bridge and New Orleans, one can find a huge selection of glassware in various styles, ages, levels of refinement, as well as sizes and shapes designed for partaking of different types of beverages. 

Below, see a photograph montage of 5 different styles of glassware ranging from the late 18^th century to the 3^rd quarter of the 19^th century, followed by pictures of stemware seen in a residence surrounded by objects of the same periods as the glassware presented. 

See Southern Accents Magazine November-December 2004 for a substantive article on domestic, hand blown French glass which utilizes photographs taken here at Au Vieux Paris Antiques.

Raise your glass and celebrate le bon gout.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions or requests you might have by telephone (337) 332-2852, e-mail robertesmith@centurytel.net, or visit our website at www.auvieuxparisantiques.com.

Mes Amities,
Robert E. Smith

Visit the Au Vieux Paris Antiques homepage (click here)
Browse a sampling of the merchandise available (click here)

Mes Amities,
Robert E. Smith   (337) 332-2852
http://www.auvieuxparisantiques.com

The stylistic periods of Consulate (1799-1804), Empire (1804-1815), Resturation (1815-1824), Charles X (1824-1830), and Louis Philippe (1830-1848)

Bonjour and welcome to today's visit to l'Ecole du Bon Goût.  Today's subjects are the stylistic periods of Consulate (1799-1804), Empire (1804-1815), Resturation (1815-1824), Charles X (1824-1830),   and Louis Philippe (1830-1848).  This may seem at first to be too many stylistic periods to group together, but take note the span of time is only 49 years which is less than the time elapsed during the reigns of Louis XIV (72 years) or Louis XV (51 years).

From Consulate through Louis Philippe, there is a continued dominance of inspirations from “antique” sources.  With Napoleon’s Egyptian “campaign” (think conquer and loot), “new” antique source material was available, digested, and re-invented in various new designs in fine art, moveable decoration, as well as the fixed décor of the architecture itself.  Some artisans, intoxicated by this romantic taste for helicon “days of long ago,” also rediscovered gothic as a source book for their new creations.  Characteristics which could be used to describe these periods would be: rich materials, gravity, nobility and architectural structuring.

In regard to furniture, whether it was the brilliantly flame grained dark mahogany of Empire or the paler woods of the Charles X period,  the use of dramatically grained, extra fine quality woods were the norm, not the exception.  Much of the expanded colonization of Louisiana took place during the time span of these periods so naturally these styles turn out to have been popular here in the period and therefore automatically
appealing and appropriate in size, scale, and taste for restorations and reuses of 19^th century Louisiana homes today.

Find below a nine picture montage of items available at Au Vieux Paris Antiques as well as photographs of installations in a residence finished in a mix of these styles, all sourced from Au Vieux Paris Antiques.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions or requests you might have by telephone (337) 332-2852, e-mail robertesmith@centurytel.net, or visit our website at www.auvieuxparisantiques.com.

Mes Amities,
Robert E. Smith

Visit the Au Vieux Paris Antiques homepage (click here)
Browse a sampling of the merchandise available (click here)

Mes Amities,
Robert E. Smith   (337) 332-2852
http://www.auvieuxparisantiques.com

The stylistic periods of Louis XVI (1774 - 1793) and Directiore (1795 - 1799)

Bonjour and welcome to today's visit to l'Ecole du Bon Goût.  Today's subjects are the stylistic periods of Louis XVI (1774 - 1793) and Directiore (1795 - 1799).  There is a period called "Revolutionaire" (1793 - 1795) which did have specific forms of expression in the arts; however, the pieces are quite rare and the political period was so bloody, cataclysmic, and destructive to the arts, architecture, and human refinements in general that we just will not go there now.

Both the Louis XVI and Directiore periods can be described as returns to symmetry, straight lines, and classically inspired forms derived from "antique" sources, ancient Greece and Rome for example.  The excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum provided many "new" inspirations for designers at this time.  Scholarly research had surmised that Classical antiquity had a far broader repertoire of architectural and decorative precedents to offer than had previously been dreamed of.  In fixed decoration, as well as movable, the Louis XVI style was not less elegant or graceful than the Louis XV mode that preceded it.  The difference lay in a more restrained and ordered form of expression which was in no way diminished in terms of luxury and attention to comfort.  The entire second floor of Au Vieux Paris Antiques is devoted to these two periods.  The clean lines, classic proportions, and rich materials utilized for their execution remain appealing to collectors and decorators today. 

Below, today’s photos begin with a nine picture montage of some of the Louis XVI and Directiore items available for purchase presently at Au Vieux Paris Antiques, followed by three photographs of a residence furnished in a mélange of the same two styles.  Photos by Mme Tina Freeman and courtesy of Southern Accents Magazine.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions or requests you might have by telephone (337) 332-2852, e-mail robertesmith@centurytel.net, or visit our website at www.auvieuxparisantiques.com.

Mes Amities,
Robert E. Smith

Visit the Au Vieux Paris Antiques homepage (click here)
Browse a sampling of the merchandise available (click here)

Mes Amities,
Robert E. Smith   (337) 332-2852
http://www.auvieuxparisantiques.com