Manufacture de papiers peints Follot was founded in Paris in - Lot 0

Manufacture de papiers peints Follot was founded in Paris in 1859 by Philippe Follot and Jules Achille Paupette, and moved to 128 rue de Charenton in the former premises of Dufour et Leroy. In 1868, Félix Follot took over the management of the factory. An industrialist and the first historian of wallpaper, he set about buying up the collections of defunct factories to enrich the archives. In 1912, he made a substantial bequest to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, helping to create its wallpaper collections. On his death in 1904, his son Charles took over the management of the company, which remained in family hands until its closure in 1987. Preserved in the family's descendants, the collection offered for sale includes nearly one hundred wallpapers representative of French production between 1780 and 1930, from the last wallpaper printed at Folie Titon, Jean-Baptiste Révillon's factory sacked during the pre-Revolutionary riots in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine in April 1789 (lot 47), to preparatory gouache models of Art-deco wallpapers. This heritage collection, dispersed for the most part in the 1980s, still offers some fine discoveries, such as rare wallpapers with the attributes of Louis XVIII and Napoleon III, demonstrating the ability of manufacturers to provide the new regimes with economical, quick-to-implement decors to cover the emblems of their predecessors in administrations and palaces (71 62 63). Other rarities include a complete copy of Jardin d'Armide, which won an award at the 1855 Universal Exhibition. In good condition, never installed, it extends over a length of nearly 6 m to offer a contemplation of an ideal Second Empire winter garden (12 and 36). A few years earlier, at the 1851 London World's Fair, Delicourt proposed Grandes chasses (33, 34); designed by Antoine Dury, the set required 4,000 plates to print. Three panels are part of the collection, two of which are presented in rich trompe-l'oeil molded frames that make the manufacturer's attempt to rival the great painting very convincing. The picturesque landscapes near and far, the mythological (52) and historical frescoes of the panoramic wallpapers in vogue in the first half of the 19th century are familiar to us; many examples are preserved in situ and the Zuber factory continues to produce the most emblematic of its decors. Between 1840 and 1880, manufacturers also offered what they called Décor to a bourgeois clientele: wallpapers covering the walls of reception rooms from bottom to top, articulating a bas-lambris, panels, uprights or pilasters, a frieze and a cornice. The effects of perspective and the art of trompe-l'oeil are developed without limit, right down to the skilful refinements of cast shadows controlling the orientation of the decor according to the openings in the house. Depending on the customer's wishes, all antique styles were used, from faithful reproductions of woodwork and stucco (21 and 25) to daring interpretations (50).