PAIR OF ENAMEL AND GOLD BACHELOR BUTTONS, ALEXIS FALIZE, 1870s

Cf; Falize, A dynasty of jewellers, Katherine Purcell, Thames and Hudson, 1999, pages 20, 202-205 for similar examples.

Cf; The Master Jewellers, edited by A. Kenneth Snowman, Thames and Hudson, 1990, page 65, for similar examples.

Japan's embracing of Western ideals and the opening of trade to the Western Imperial powers in 1853-54 was to create a fascination with all things Japanese in the West. Japanese silks, lacquers, ivories, porcelain and prints were eagerly sought by the Middle classes during a movement  that was to be named "Japonaiserie". Alexis Falize's enthusiasm for the new movement was fired by his discovery of a series of albums on Japanese art. Hokusai's fifteen-volume Magna, a pictorial encyclopaedia of Japanese life, was used frequently by Falize who reproduced the designs through Antoine Tard's vivid cloisonné enamels from brooches to perfume flasks, all presented in cases covered in Japanese silk.