A I M E R Y S O M O G Y F O N D AT E U R
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A I M E R Y S O M O G Y F O N D AT E U R
Katharine TURVEY
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Les Collections de Monsieur,
frère de Louis XIV
Orfèvrerie et objets d’art des Orléans sous l’Ancien Régime
Paul Micio
Author, specialist in French silver and
Decorative Arts
EAN / ISBN 9782757207802
Hardcover with dustjacket, 59 €
24 x 32 cm / 360 pages / 225 images
CD containing 500 archival transcriptions
Language: French
Publication date:
5 November 2014
Preface by Michèle Bimbenet‑Privat,
Chief curator, Department of
Decorative Arts, Musée du Louvre
Forward by Béatrix Saule, Director,
Chief curator, Musée national des
châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon
As surprising as it may seem, the collections of
"Monsieur," brother of Louis XIV, and of his family, have
never been studied in depth. And yet, these collections
of silver metalwork, jewelry, art objects, cameos, and
precious stones were the most spectacular and varied
of the Ancien Régime.
Thanks to the generous cooperation of the Orléans
family, who granted access to its family archives, and to
the research carried out by Paul Micio in France, Spain
and England, a large amount of archival material (family
inventories, journals, letters, bills, accounts, etc.) have
come together to create the basis of an exhaustive study
of the collections belonging to this important family.
This book traces the history of these unique collections
from the Renaissance to the end of the eighteenth century.
Illustrated with more than 225 images representing
paintings, designs, engravings, table setting plans,
jewelry, silver, art objects, mounted porcelains and
hardstones, this volume will be of interest to scholars
and amateurs alike.
It is accompanied by a CD containing 500 pages of
archival material and never-before published documents.
The Collections de Monsieur promises to be a key
reference work on French Decorative Art of the 17th and
18th centuries.
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PAUL MICIO obtained a Masters degree
from the Sorbonne in Modern Literature,
specialising in seventeenth-century poetry.
He defended his doctoral thesis in the same
institution in 2009, under the direction of
Michèle Bimbenet-Privat, on the collections
of Monsieur, brother of Louis XIV. His thesis
formed the basis for this book.
Paul Micio is an expert on silver and decorative
arts, and is the author of a number of books and
articles on French metalwork. He published
the silverware inventories of Nicolas Fouquet
for the Bulletin de la Société de l’histoire de
l’art français, and a study on the representation
of religious silver in the wall sculptures of the
Royal Chapel at Versailles, for Versalia. He
collaborates regularly with museums all over
the world, such as the Louvre, the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, the Getty, the Victoria &
Albert Museum, and the Nationalmuseum
of Stockholm. Micio also coauthored Les
Cuillers à sucre dans l’orfèvrerie française du
XVIIe siècle (Somogy, 2005), and has also
published a prefaced facsimile edition of the
1759 text Statuts et privilèges du corps des
marchands orfèvres-joailliers de la ville de
Paris for the Getty Museum. His articles in
French and English feature regularly in various
magazines and art historical reviews, including
Apollo Magazine, L’Estampille/L’Objet d’art,
and the Journal of the London Silver Society.
Paul Micio has been named chevalier in the
Ordre des Arts et Lettres.
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