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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 20, 2022 6:44:58 GMT
th centuryLast weekend were the Heritage Days in France, when they open up all sorts of placed that are not normally open to the public. The most popular places require hours of waiting (Elysée presidential palace, Matignon prime minister's office, etc.). I wasn't in the mood for queueing up, so I decided to take a look at the Mobilier National, the national official furniture warehouse. It is a section of the ministry of culture and is responsible for furnishing all of the official ministries, the embassies around the world, guest residences for foreign dignataries and probably many places of which I have no knowledge. This includes furniture, paintings, sculptures, tapestries, carpets, light fixtures... There is a strict inventory of every item and absolutely everything must be accounted for. Particularly in embassies, paintings and sculptures sometimes disappear, but it is usually possible to track down the culprits, and they are just as often ambassadors as kitchen staff. Many of these things are quite pretty and seem to attract forms of lust. The service was created by Henri IV in 1604 under the name Garde-Meuble royal. Back in those days, kings moved around from palace to palace all the time and they took all of their stuff with them. I'm sure it didn't take long for them to notice that a lot of items went missing along the way. The need for a proper inventory became even more essential after the destruction of the Tuileries Palace and the Château of Saint Cloud in the 19th century. This wiped out lots of treasures and convinced the government to take better care of everything. So here is the entrance, not ostentatious at all. It dates from 1937 and was designed by Auguste Perret. It is back of the Gobelins tapestry works, which it also controls.
Luckily the postal address is not that of the square in front of the building.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 20, 2022 6:50:09 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 20, 2022 6:55:31 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 20, 2022 7:05:37 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 20, 2022 7:14:23 GMT
Flags are part of the furnishings that need to be supplied of course.  A "big" event this week was the delivery of the new table for the council of ministers to the Elysée. It won the contest for young designers, and they were proud to talk about it.  This is a carpet from Notre Dame that is being restored. That place is going to be so bright and shiny when it reopens that nobody will believe that it is 900 years old.  No, this carpet itself is not 900 years old.   Last but not least, I got a quick photo of one of the Gobelins tapestry workshops where photography is forbidden. That will do for now.  |
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Post by htmb on Sept 20, 2022 7:49:25 GMT
It must be a huge job to catalogue and keep track of all the furnishing of embassies and other government buildings around the world. I imagine some people spend their whole careers doing such things. The large windows in the tapestry workshop look to be very important. Do you happen to know what direction they face? Isn’t there a report somewhere on Gobelin? I’ll have to go look. I found one of Tod’s excellent threads, with mention and photos taken on a 2016 tour of Gobelin. It starts in reply six here. |
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Post by bjd on Sept 20, 2022 9:26:10 GMT
I'm surprised at the number of people who went to look at official furniture but I see that it's quite interesting. But the rows of chairs lined up on the shelves make me think of Ikea.  |
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Post by htmb on Sept 21, 2022 12:08:08 GMT
The quality and craftsmanship between the items shown in Kerouac’s photos and the kind of furniture most of us buy today certainly cannot compare. As out of date as many of these old pieces appear, we might ought to look more at recycling, repairing, repurposing and reusing older furniture rather than replacing it with items that just don’t last.
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Post by tod2 on Sept 21, 2022 14:02:59 GMT
Thank you so much for that tour Kerouac. Your last photograph was immediately recognisable as the long gallery we all (You, me and Mr) walked down admiring the tapestry work going on. Visiting the Gobelins factory was a real highlight even though we missed a bit as the guide only spoke French....but you so kindly filled in a lot for us!
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 21, 2022 14:49:41 GMT
The large windows in the tapestry workshop look to be very important. Do you happen to know what direction they face? The Google Earth satellite photos give me the impression that the windows face north. That would make sense in terms of the workers not getting the sun in their eyes. |
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 23, 2022 5:31:14 GMT
I saw a bit of this thread when I didn't have time to look at it. Trying to find it just now, I was puzzled that it wasn't in the museum board. Well, of course that's because it's a warehouse, not a museum. But what a warehouse! I have to echo what Bjd said about the chairs lined up like Ikea. But I can't agree with Kerouac's remark about not giving them a second glance if they weren't labeled. Quite a few are real classics and the wooden Mitterand chair is a gorgeous use of the material.
It's nice that they made those historical groupings, making the public think about the symbolic and diplomatic deployment of furniture.
The pedestal sinks are exactly like the one in my grandparents' house.
Finally, the light in the upholstery repair room is beautiful -- I love the photo of it right above the picture of the thread cards.
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