Maison Monbro

• French

Georges Alphonse Bonifacio Monbro, whose father was an antique dealer and a cabinetmaker, was born in 1807 in Paris, where he died in 1884. He took over the family business from 1838 with the name Monbro aine and whose the shop was situated at 18, Rue Basse-du-Rempart. During Haussmann's renovation of Paris, he had to move and set up in Rue du Helder, in the hotel Dudon, which will also be demolished. Monbro sold curiosities, furniture, bronzes, porcelains, tapestries, sculptures and was also cabinetmaker. He acquired a great renown and opened a branch in London around 1850. While his shop was compared by his contemporaries to a real antiquities museum, the furniture he created were famous thanks to their historicism and their eclecticism, in vogue, as this pair of cabinets. - Marc Masion