The
entrance doors to some older buildings in Paris are often nicely decorated – I have already made a few posts, e.g. here. I found some quite spectacular examples the other
day on rue de Grenelle, nos 67 and 69, two rather typical Haussmannian
buildings. Both entrances, identical, seem to be newly repainted, no. 67 in a black glossy paint,
no. 69 in a grey matt paint. Well, it may be a question of taste… I prefer the
grey one.
This
decoration has been delivered by the famous foundries, “Val d’Osne”, created in
1835, situated in a Paris suburb and in operation, with some changed names,
until the 1980’s. At the bottom of this post I show some other examples of
their production, very much linked to the Paris image.
So, here
some illustrations of the grey no. 69 doors – see also top picture…
… and here
some illustrations of the black glossy version at no. 67.
… and finally
some illustrations of metro entrances (one model actually named “Val d’Osne”),
the Wallace fountains, the decoration of the Alexandre III bridge… all produced
by “Val d’Osne”.
Posts
6 comments:
Lovely art everywhere.
I see the photo of the Alexander III bridge and I get happy. It is so beautiful! On the other hand, those two doors, with those spooky bas-relief carvings.........
Beautiful photos. Thank you so much.
Toutes les beautés de notre beau Paris.
Peter,
I had to delete my first comment because I realized that I had mixed the history of two bridges. I had read about both a long time ago...and somehow...
The Pont Alexandre III has its counterpart, the Troitsky Bridge in Saint Petersburg, which was built by The Société de Construction des Batignolles.
When Tsar Nicholas II came to Paris with his Tsarina in 1896, to lay the foundation stone of Pont Alexandre III, he contacted and negotiated with the Société de Construction des Batignolles, because he wanted a new bridge as well. There had already been a contest for the connection between the Field of Mars and the Troitskaya Square over the Neva as early as 1892 and Gustave Eiffel had won it.
But in 1896 he was no longer in line as engineer for the project. He had been found guilty of embezzling money during the failed construction of the Panama Canal in 1893. The Société de Construction des Batignolles, which was highly internationally active at the time, was thus hired to build the bridge in his place.The president of the French Republic came to Saint Petersburg to witness the laying of the Foundation stone.
Spectacular.... I want to return to Paris to see it's beauty for myself. I was there about 18 or 19 years ago..... I really want to come back!
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