Wonders of the Belle Epoque - 1: TEFAF Maastricht 2022

1900 : GLORIOUS TURN-OF-THE-CENTURY

It still feels like yesterday, but it has been twenty-six months since we closed our stands in Maastricht. Although the last two years brought a lot of frustration with fewer, if any, physical interactions with our friends, collectors and clients, there were many joyful moments as well, like our participation in Frieze Masters last fall and the inauguration of our new Paris gallery last month, 71 rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, which coincided with our tenth annniversary.

Now that the pandemic is behind us, I’m delighted to finally put into action all the hard work and research that were conducted by our team since March 2020. Many of the pieces unveiled here have been hidden away all this time. I wanted to keep this fantastic group intact until it could be properly presented, seen, touched and appreciated. The turn-of-the-century has always been our gallery’s great passion. The artistic and cultural exchanges between countries was stronger than ever and the exciting competition it created resulted in an unprecedented level of quality, modernity, refinement and grace. Universal Exhibitions were the ultimate cata- lysts of this creativity. Eight of the twenty pieces in this catalogue were shown at such events, including four at the 1900 Paris World Fair, which is an accomplishment of its own. Each piece has been carefully selected because of its importance and contribution to the beautiful story of European decorative arts in the late XIXth and early XXth century.