Bric - à - brac - Wikipedia Bric - à - brac This article is about items of low value. For British television programme, see Bric - a-Brac. For the 2005 French album, see Bric à brac. Bric - à - brac for sale at a street market in Cambridge. Bric - à - brac or bric - a-brac ( origin French ), first used in the Victorian era, refers to lesser objets d'art forming collections of curios, such as elaborately decorated teacups and small vases, compositions of feathers or wax flowers under glass domes, decorated eggshells, porcelain figurines, painted miniatures or photographs in stand - up frames, and so on. In middle - class homes bric - à - brac was used as ornament on mantelpieces, tables, and shelves, or was displayed in curio cabinets : sometimes these cabinets have glass doors to display the items within while protecting them from dust. Today, `` bric - à - brac '' refers to a selection of items of modest value, often sold in street markets and charity shops. Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman, Jr., in The Decoration of Houses ( 1897 ), distinguished three gradations of quality in such `` household ornaments '' : bric - à - brac, bibelots ( trinkets ) and objets d'art. See also Antique shop Discount store Staffordshire dog figurine Variety store References Jump up ^ Online Etymology Dictionary Jump up ^ OED first reference in English : 1840. Jump up ^ `` French speech... has provided at least three designations, each indicating a delicate and almost imperceptible gradation of quality '' : Wharton and Codman, The Decoration of Houses, 1897, Ch. XVI `` Bric - à - brac '' p. 184. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bric - à - brac. Look up bric - a-brac or bric - à - brac in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Bric à Brac. This history article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bric - à - brac&oldid = 782577027 '' Categories : Collecting Reuse History stubs Talk About Wikipedia Deutsch Español Italiano Nederlands Português Edit links This page was last edited on 27 May 2017, at 20 : 36. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: where does the word bric a brac come from
Answer: first used in the Victorian era