A French plate from Boutiques Parisiennes du Premier Empire, published by Éditions Albert Morancé in Paris in the 1920s. The series records the elegant shopfronts of Napoleonic Paris, drawn from designs of the early 1800s. This one, plate 31, shows a magasin de modes, a milliner’s and fashion shop, at No. 50 Boulevard Montmartre, beside the Théâtre des Variétés. A band of grey veined marble crowns the façade above a frieze of winged griffins facing classical urns and candelabra. Below, winged figures float in the spandrels of a central arched doorway. The tall arched windows on either side are framed in golden faux wood with slender dark columns, all set above a green base. The colors were applied by hand with stencils, a technique called pochoir that gives the plates their soft, painterly finish. It is set in a gilt frame carved with leaf tips, and it is lovely in a dressing room, a study, or hung with other architectural prints.
- Title: Magasin de Modes, Boulevard Montmartre, No. 50, à côté des Variétés
- Publisher: Éditions Albert Morancé, Paris
- Series: Boutiques Parisiennes du Premier Empire, plate 31
- Age: Circa 1925
- Medium: Print with hand-applied pochoir color
- Details: Empire shopfront with griffin frieze, winged figures, arched windows, faux marble and faux wood finishes; gilt frame with carved leaf-tip molding, glazed
- Dimensions: 10"W × 12.5"H
- Condition: Good condition with light toning and a few small spots to the paper, and light wear to the gilt on the frame.
