A French gilt metal and champlevé enamel mounted ebonised wood box in the Orientalist taste by Alphonse Giroux

A French gilt metal and champlevé enamel mounted ebonised wood box in the Orientalist taste by Alphonse Giroux, circa 1870, the wood body with incised octagonal star motif in the style of parquetry overall, the hinged cover, front back and sides with polychrome enamelled cartouche mounts, and two oval swing handles with cast foliate detail, the lockplate inscribed Alph Giroux &Cie a Paris 13.5 cm high, 26.5 cm wide, 19 cm deep
CATALOGUE NOTES:
In addition to being a renowned retailer of objets d'art, the Parisian Maison Alphonse Giroux also produced objects of their own design or made in collaboration with ornemanistes. The firm developed a distinctive 'look' in the third quarter of the nineteenth century, when they began to include enamel in their opulent designs. The mounts on this ebonised box for example feature the trademark Giroux slender lines in red, white and two shades of blue. The illusion of parquetry incised into the wood adds further dimension and detail to the object. A box by Giroux held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (Acc. number 2010.227) shows a similar combination of intricately cast gilt mounts atop a surface with parquetry of various woods. Such detail would certainly be appreciated by Giroux' clientele, which included the French Royal Family. The coronet engraved into the central cartouche on the lid could suggest an owner of noble descent.