French Padlock with Secrets

These unique 18K metamorphic gold French opera glasses are the epitome of both elegance and luxury. Exquisitely engraved with delicate floral motifs, these glasses fold up perfectly ...

This important and unique sword was presented to the famed French painter Jean-Gabriel Domergue to commemorate the painter's election to the illustrious Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1950. One of the highest honors bestowed on a French artist, the ceremonial induction into the French Academy has been accompanied by the presentation of a sword since the age of Napoléon. Rather than a weapon, the sword became part of the Academician's uniform, and, over time, its design came to represent the interests and aspirations of its recipient. This example was designed entirely by Domergue's wife Odette, a great sculptor in her own right, and thus it represents both a highly personal gift and an important art historical relic. The design of the sword is simply magnificent. Odette Domergue found her inspiration in antiquity, a theme that is also seen in the neoclassical sculptures that occupy the gardens of the couple's famous home, Villa Fiesole - also known as Villa Domergue - in Cannes. The impressive weapon boasts a solid gold handle that takes the form of a sinuous caryatid, who is nude save for a single swath of drapery. While the female figure recalls the sculpted supports prevalent in ancient Greek architecture, she also calls to mind the subjects for which Domergue was renowned - languorous, slightly risqué women with a seductive air. Other decorative elements such as fauna, cypresses, and grotesque heads enhance the whimsy and imagination of the incredible neoclassical design. Furthermore, the scabbard that contains the finely etched blade is also an impeccable work of art. Crafted of black Moroccan leather in imitation of the snake skin, it displays intricately engraved foliage patterns with a lion's head and Domergue's coat of arms. Though imagined by his wife, the sword was expertly chiseled by the celebrated goldsmith R. Delsinne and assembled by the atelier of the famed sculptor and medalist Raymond Delamarre...

This exceptional objet d'art is modeled after a cannon from the siege of Mafeking, a 217-day conflict in South Africa during the Second Boer War. It is composed of silverplate over c...

The time-honored decorative techniques of pietre dure and micromosaic are combined in this rare and exceptionally-crafted Grand Tour casket. Serving as a m...

This English 1950s heavy sterling silver bracelet has 17 large three-dimensional charms and opens or closes with a heart shaped padlock on a little safety chain. Some of the charms have moving or opening parts. The windmill really turns, the lid of the beer mug opens, the ship opens up, the leaves on the orange are separate from the orange, the bellow bellows, the treasury chest opens, the corn has loose leaves and the scissors 'cut'. Three of them are European solid silver pendants: the acorn (Italy 925) the long pendant (sword Dutch 835, used from 1906-1953) the German beer mug...

Paris Secret et Insolite (Secret and Unusual Paris), French book by Rodolphe Trouilleux. Under the cobblestones, surprises: forgotten dead-ends, a cloister converted into workshops, a real-fake medieval house, the slabs of the guillotine, a 17th-century metro, a mineral water fountain, a tiny house, a miraculous Vespasian, a chapel in spare parts, Russian isbas, hidden gardens, revolutionary inscriptions, a forgotten cannonball, a working-class town in the upscale neighborhoods, a fashionable ox, abandoned convents, a washhouse facade, a bastion on the fortifications, an itinerant chapel, a pierced castle, sleeping villas, a lemon tree in a telephone booth, that's Paris! The French capital has not finished revealing its mysteries: a Palladian villa, a 15th-century tower, an acclimatization square, rats nibbling on a facade, an old Protestant cemetery, a medieval sign...

Antique safe from the restoration period with internal walnut structure and iron cladding decorated with studs, from Italy, second quarter of the 19th century. Front with door decora...

Secret Houses: Living in Menorca Text by Susana Gallardo, Photographs by Karel Balas Dreamy estates from the island of Menorca come alive in this lively collection of images pres...