Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-07-04
RUNS ITS OWN STORE
The French Government Has
Now Become a Shopkeeper.
SELLS WORKS OF ART
PARIS MERCHANTS FEAR CoMPE-
Triton BY THE STATE.
Fine Engravings and Replicas at Bar
gain Prices-Sevres Porce-
lain-Monopolies.
SELLS WORKS OF ART
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

The French government has just opened
a retail shop. 1t Is an ordinary shop like
any other very handsome one on the south
side of the Boulevard below the building OF
the Credit Lyonnois.
In the windows of this shop you see ex-
posed for sale all kinds of beautiful art
objects. in particular Sevres vases, dinner
services tea and coffee cups and saucers
and delicious figurines in porcelaine.
Behind them are exhibited steel and wood
engravings masterpieces. photographers
and all kinds Of the best process work in
the picture reproduction. not excluding d.
rect photographs. And standing here and
there you see small plaster-o paris casts
of sculptors' masterpieces, modern and
ancient Inside are larger casts and in
glass-covered cabinets are exposed for sale
all kinds of medals.
The porcelain objects from the
French government mandatory at Sew
res. The casts are taken from the stat
uary of the great museums. The medals
are from the mint, anu the photogra phs
and engravings are the work of the ceie-
brated Louvre stan, work that until now
has been difficult to be procured
Certainly. it is an extraordinary reyoiu-
ton in the retail trade in Paris. Up and
down the Rue de RivoH art dealers" of
all shades of merit cry out against this
unprecedented competition in which the
French government to whom they pay
their taxes, threatens to lop on serious
portion of their profits.
Up and down the Boulevard and in the
special dealers sections both modern china
ware retailers and bogus and genuine an
tiquity mongers lament such an extension
of the SevreS products into every day trade.
And even high-ciass picture dealers. the
most dignified and independent of all
tradesmen, mildly protest against such a
pOpularizing of the Louvre engraVings.
heretofore they had done a neat little COM
mission business in Them.
Work of Engravers.
"Popularizing!' in this word you have
the whole story of departure
which may go far. Take the work of the
Louvre staff of engravers. For fifty years
past they have slowly copied the great
paintings of the Louvre and Versailles col
lections, until now the general catalogue
contains almost anything that you may ask
for.
Indeed the work of these old engravers
goes back far more than fifty years You
may have plates struck off from originals
engraved in the time of Louis XIV and
his successors.
The collection of steel and wood engrav-
ingS of famous paintings is fad more IN
telligent and certainly more difficult than
postage stamp collecting; and most OF US
have without giving much attention TO the
matter imagined very naturally. that rich
men only may indulge in It, A visit 10 the
shop of the French government dSpelS this
illusion. The immense collection of the
Louvre Is offered here for sale at prices
varying between so cents and So per sub
ject; while the average price Is something
like francs or TO cents. You may have
Santerres Susanna at the Bath. en-
graved by Porporau in 1173. for 80 cents:
LIE Bruins Baptism of Christ" engraved
by Audran in 16S1. for Sd: Van Dyck
"Ecce Homo" engraved by himself. for 20
cents. and everything of Raphael. Rubens.
Velasquez and the rest the Louvre itself
less those which
postage stamp collectors pay for only mod
erately rare pieces.
These engravings have been sold for the
same prices at the Louvre itself these hfty
wears mast: but not one Partisan out of fifty
knew it; and not one out of a thousand
could direct you to the little room hidden
away in the immense palace museum.
where the stock was kept and where an
aged employee stood ready to do business
Casts, Models and Porcelain.
It has been still more the case with plas-
ter casts of the marbles Of antiquity in
which the Louvre is so rich. How many
tourists have longed in vain. as they ina
gined, to possess the replica of this or that
bust or statue modern or ancient! Yet
such ca. exist. and they have always
been for sale at ridiculously low prices.
Orders for hem can be given. now. in this
new retail shop of the French government
1t is, however. to the modern work of the
call the attention of the coming tourist:
while the medals of the mint. exposed N
glass case in the interior. are so unusual,
so beautiful and. above all, so cheap that
they may be set down as new boon to
those who want to take home presents 10
their dear ones. The tiny little silver
medal. like an engraved jewel. which was
struck off to commemorate the return OF
Napoleon l from Elbe, sells here for 10
cents new and beautiful. struck from the
original die. Another. commemorating the
birth of the King of Rome (sOn of Ma
poleon and Marie LOuise), In gold, sells
for $40 Large medals with portraits Of
the presidents of the present French repub
lie sell. in silver. for 81 40 EACH There are
hundreds of these medals. dating from the
time of Louis XIV down to the exposition
of 1900. All are struck off new, from the |
original dies and the tiny ones. of his |
toric interest, make nice cum buttons. |
sleeve links and scarfpins. |
In the modern Sevres ware. noted vase
in faint neutral tints supporting delicious
ly slender seated female figure. sleeping.
1t is by Paul Roussei and sells for $35. |
Henri Cordier's celebrated equetrtan figure |
of Don Quixote, costs $500. And Cherets |
Laundry Girl with cupids aiding her to |
drag her basket)-a piece SO beautiful that |
the the Sevres factory itself sold eighty |
copies Of it the first year-is marked $500. |
But there are any quantity OF cheaper arti- |
cles. Little vases and cups may be had as |
low as a few dollars. Possessed of the |
real Sevres mark, what better gift can one
take home when one has spent ones money |
In the round of Paris pleasures?
Government Competition
1 have said that howl has gone up |
from the Boulevard. the Rue de la Paix. |
the Rue de Rivoli and the Avenue Of the |
Opera The special dealers who have piled |
up fortunes with small labor to themselves |
by selling objects Of this kind-both good |
and bad-to tourists. fear the competition |
OF the government. The government re- |
plies that, as its line Of goods Is very |
limited, no great harm can result to re- |
tail commerce. 1t has opened this extra |
ordinary shop for the sole purpose of max |
ing certain purely artistic objects more ac-
cessible to those who know and care for /
them. The great mass of tourists will /
always go on buying trash!
As to the wider question of great |
government going into retail shopkeeping |
of any kind. the Paris public is already |
pretty we'll habituated to 1T.
For example. the French government is |
already in the retail cigar and tobacco |
business-there being no Wholesale Along |
the south bank of the river Seine. where |