Featured Napoleon III-Box with Boulle Inlay; Toroise Shell and Brass

Hi everybody,

I have bought beautiful box last week, and it finally arrived.

It's a wooden perfume bottles box. It has 3 green opaline scent bottle in it.
The box was made in France, during the Napoleon III-period.

The technique of this inlay work in called "BOULLE".
The inlay consist of brass, and tortoiseshell.

(I must say; I have never seen real tortoiseshell before. I thought I had,
but that piece turned out to be a fake)

Although these boxes were definitely made with tortoise shell, I'm sure it's real.

In the mount of the box it says:
PALAIS ROYAL 7.
And something in front of it, which I can't really read.
Looks like something as: SMAL FIT. or IMAL F.T.

Anyway, this isn't familiar to me at all.
Palais Royal is. I believe that used to be a glass manufacturer. (Verrerie)

In the lids of the bottles there's a floral decoration, which looks a lot like the works of Jean-Francois Robert, and sèvres.

I believe the box dates back to ca. 1850.


Anyway.... my question to you is...

The tortoise shell is in very bad shape. It's cracked and bent.
Some small pieces are missing also.

I would really like to restore this piece myself.
I have read just a little bit online the last hour.
Find out you can make tortoiseshell shine again using almond oil, but you should use almond oil for inlay work.

Although I'm very pessimistic about it, I would like to give it a try.

Does anybody have any tips for me?

I think the first step it to get the pieces flat again.
Should I take it out? Or just humidify it with something?



Thanks for your help in advance!

Kind regards

 

I love it. What a treasure! Sorry I don't know anything about restoration.

 

Haha, thank you

 

Lovely box. If I were you, I would leave it alone.

Boulle work like this is not easy to restore/repair effectively unless you are very familiar with the materials. The shell is wafer thin so in a case where the shell has lifted and can be pressed back into position without damage, it is possible to "re-stick" it.

This has to be done very gingerly however, as getting too much glue and/or not getting intimate contact with the wooden substrate will make more of a mess than what you started with. If you can get under the bubbled or loose section with a pin or needle, take some thin Krazy glue and place a drip on a work surface, like an old plate. Use a needle to lift a tiny amount and plop it behind the loose section. Then, using a pencil eraser end as a pusher, press the shell for about 20 seconds. Do not get ANY glue on the front as it will disfigure the finish.

If the brass is loose, it too can be secured, but with the brass I would use a slower curing glue like carpenter's glue and clamp. Again, very little glue is needed - too much will mess up the job. If the brass is bent or distorted I would not try to re-stick it, that usually fails and the failed attempts can be quite noticeable.

Cracks are not always "cracks" but seams where shell has been pieced together during manufacture. As far as bringing the surface up to polish and removing the dullness of the shell, well, not easy. I haven't tried the method you mention but all my efforts to restore the sheen from shell that has greyed have not been successful so I can offer no advice on that.

Replacing losses can best be accomplished by buying an old broken boulle clock stand or some other article and using bits of the salvaged shell to repair your piece.

Anyway, from the photos you supplied I can't really see any major issues with the piece and in my opinion, probably best left alone.

oh and BTW. The f't after SMAL or whatever stands for "Fecit" = made or made by

 

Excellent advice. Thank you very much.

 

I love it too. So elegant.

 

Hi, thank you very much for taking the time to explain this in detail. Although my pictures are good, it doesn't really show the state of the tortoise shell, which in my opinion is quite battered. The brass and the bottles are in perfect condition.

I think it would be best to leave it, like you said. And maybe contact a professional restorer in the future. The f't it would have figured out myself anyway.

But.. in the meantime I have found 2 very interesting things:

1) Another scent bottle box, with the exact same inscription.
On picture #9 & #10 is best to see.

See: https://www.proantic.com/en/display.php?mode=obj&id=690788

2) I found a link to some kind of maker's and distributioners list, in this case, for French boxes. And there I found an interesting name. I'm not sure which conclusion (if any) I can draw from it.

If you'd click on the link. And once you're on the website, use the search function (CTRL + F). If you type in "Palais Royal", there are 6 "hits". If you look at the second it says:

Dujat (Louis Dujat) – Maison Smal L. Dujat: Palais Royal, Galerie Montpensier 7 & 8, Paris.

This is the link:
http://antiqueboxes.org/index-of-french-makers-and-retailers/

 

Searching on Maison Smal L.Dujat, I found more items with inscriptions of Palais Royal 7 & 8. I think I can conclude that it was made by L. Dujat.

In the first and 3rd link I believe it says that L.Dujat was a supplier of the french royal family.

The 3rd link is an antique shop that knows their stuff. So that's a nice fact

Links to these items, as an example:
1- https://monsantic.com/fr/lots/54/07...is-royal-ds-letat-fin-19es-deb-20es-8x19x10cm

2- https://www.baronribeyre.com/lot/19894/3981147?npp=10000&

3- https://www.antiques-delaval.com/en...klace-smal-dujat-royal-palace-paris-19th.html

4- https://www.ebay.fr/itm/Tres-Beau-S...MAL-L-DUJAT-St-Palais-Royal-7-8-/274306637752

 

One last link:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Palais-Roy...=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

It has the same inscription. Also the same style, and the middle piece on top is quite the same. It's just the bottles, that are likely to be made by Baccarat. I don't think they belong to this box.

 

So beautiful. Congratulations!

Perhaps I'm speaking out of turn, but our own @kyratango is a restoration genius who has completed many amazing projects. She may be able to help.

 

Is there anybody here that knows stuff about French perfume bottles?

I come across many grand tour bottles, which have a little miniature of Parisian/French architectural buildings. And some don't.. Some have floral decorations like these. I've had them before. Since this boulle inlaywork existed way before, I think the bottles (and box) could be earlier than 1855/1850.

I would like to know when this grand tour thing started. And I mean the mediallions of those buildings.. There were placed on a variety of stuff like bottles, boxes, eggs, dishes and more.

What if the bottles were made with flowers and other decorations before the miniature buildings.

 

The Grand Tour as we think of it lasted from about 1660 to the mid 19th Century and the rise of rail transportation.
The oldest French Grand Tour souvenir perfume bottles I've seen date to around 1800-1820. So you're right; the bottles and box could date to before 1855/1850, but probably not before 1800.

 

Olive oil on your finger, sparingly and gently. I have my grandmother's tortoiseshell bits. Took one to the British Museum years ago and they advised that. It does work.

 

Would that be for the shine? Or for the "warping"?

Plus, I still don't really know if the tortoise is real though.
I have never seen a real piece in real life to be honest
And with this covid thing all the antique shops are closed.

Yesterday I found a couple of boxes like this which had faux tortoise inlay.

My way of thinking, which doesn't make any sense.. I just thought the antique boxes would have the real stuff anyway. And modern boxes wouldn't. But it seems like they've been using the fake stuff since a long time ago.

 

I have applied some olive oil on it, and it's definitely an improvement. I'll try some more tomorrow in daylight. If I don't forget, I'll send some pictures.

Here's from before.

 

I shared this link before. And I must have missed it when reading it, but there's faux tortoise mentioned in the description way below. Since this is quite the same box as mine, even made by the same maker, I think I can conclude mine's fake as well.

 

Sorry, missed your reply. Yes, for the shine and to get the greyness gone a bit.

I doubt it's fake. It's common for Ebay sellers to say that to get round the rules.

 

Oh really? Well, I have no idea. I won't sell that quick, so when the lockdown is over I will check out the antique shop But thanks!

 

On your last pics, I can now see the damages!

I never "kyratised" those Boulle inlays, but I know the glue involved is organic, either rabbit skin or fish glue... These are activated by heat and moist. NO SUPER GLUE or similar should be used...

Oiling would only be done once the pieces are back and secure in place (oil prevents the gluing to be effective!)

That is a very nice piece, deserving a professional restore

On a flat piece, I'd try ironing medium temp with steam through a cloth and let set under a press. Convex parts here are the problem with press

 

Thank you
I have tried a little with olive oil. But I didn't have the right light.
Next day I didn't see much difference, therefore I gladly didn't continue.

And I have read a whole part about glue. I believe it was written by a professional restorer for a museum. I absolutely remember nothing from it!

It was indeed about fish glue and rabbit skin glue. And something that there was only 1 company left in Europa that still made it. But there was something not right about the substension of it or something. And then they figured out a way together.

And a whole part about how people nowadays use synthetic glue I believe.

Just say I'm right