MUSEUM

The indispensable necessaire

Musée national des châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau

Opening : From the 2007-10-02 to the 2008-01-01

Exhibition organised by the Réunion des musées nationaux and the Musée national des châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau

Necessaires - boxes containing all the essential accessories for a certain activity - can reveal much about a particular era, about the fashions and tastes of the time. This exhibition therefore aims to highlight their history, as well as to show the great diversity of these everyday objects.

Princess Palatine, Duchess of Orléans, was said to be one of the first to use the term “necessaire”, in the 18th century, in her correspondence. However, these boxes seem to have already been around since the 16th century. The 1743 edition of Trévoux’s dictionary defines this object as “a small box, divided into compartments, to hold a variety of necessary or convenient items when travelling”.

The first necessaires held utensils for preparing a meal or eating. They gradually became fashionable for other activities: bathroom, sewing, writing, drawing. In the 18th century, many scientific or technical necessaires were produced, with highly skilful decorative and artistic detail (Surveyor’s necessaire, Musée du Louvre, Objets d’art department). During the reign of Louis XVI, all these different uses were combined in one single set, sometimes quite large, like the famous necessaire in the Grasse international perfume museum, said to have belonged to Marie-Antoinette.

In the 18th century and in the early 19th century, the French were the undisputed masters of this art as shown by the necessaires of Martin-Guillaume Biennais, Napoleon’s goldsmith, and those of Pierre-Dominique Maire.
Prestigious, luxury items, with the monograms or arms of their owners, they held a variety of accessories made of gold, porcelain and crystal set in an inlaid or leather-bound box.

The composition and design of a necessaire was the work of a specialised manufacturer called a “tabletier”, who commissioned the box and assembled the utensils.

The exhibition presents more than eighty necessaires dating from the 17th century to the 1930s. Visitors can admire such beautiful pieces as the necessaire given to Josephine by Napoleon (musée national des châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau), and the one said to have belonged to Marie-Antoinette (musée international de la Parfumerie, Grasse), as well as Prince Eugene’s shaving set, a national treasure which recently entered the Malmaison collections, and exhibited here for the first time. In this way, alongside the magnificent pieces from the Château de Malmaison collection, the exhibition features many works from public and private collections like those from the Vuitton and Hermès fashion houses.