French Purse-Card Case with high relief bronze plaque 17thc. scene, circa 1870
$395.00 AUD
Superb French letter purse / card case, the large rectangular form with a high-relief silvered copper plaque to one side depicting a 17th century landscape with multiple figures and distant landscape, the purse in blue velvet with blue silk lining, the rim in silvered metal.
Marked to the clasp ‘BREVETE’ (ie. Copyright)
‘Mson H.Sse’ maker’s mark
Paris, circa 1870
9.5x14cm, 2cm thick
Condition: some wear to copper to panel, the fabrics all good with minor signs of age, some marks to silvered metal rims. Displays well.
Contains clues to the original owner – 2 photos and an old receipt…..
One photo is an original Studio ‘Card de Visit’, and bears the name of S. Moco, Photagraphe – Ile Maurice (Mauritius). It also has a British Royal Warrant, so there’s an interesting un-researched story there.
The second is a family photo that includes the gent with the magnificent moustache, and what seems to be his wife & kids.
The receipt is for 6 months telephone line rental in Melbourne in 1919, made out to C. R. Pignolet.
This family name allows us to find the probable story of this piece.
The ‘Leader’ Newspaper in Melbourne reported on 3 June 1882 that “Mr, Mrs and Miss Pignalet and servant, and also Mr & Mrs Wye, Victorian Sugar Company agents’ had arrived on 22nd April in Melbourne onboard the ‘Lady Elizabeth’ , from Mauritius.This initial report apparently mis-spells their name: it should be nol, not nal. And Pignolet is itself a shortened version of the full French surname: Pignolet de Fresnes.
The ‘Mr Pignalet’ would have been Franchain Pignolet de Fresne, and his wife Perrine Eléonore (Eléonore) Pignolet de Fresne. Their female children were all named Marie – apparently they were known by their second names!
These were Marie Mathilde (Pignolet) Collard, Marie Lilia (Pignolet de Fresne) Keogh, Marie Julia Pignolet de Fresne, Max Edmond Pignolet de Fresne and Marie Nélie Pignolet de Fresne.The Gent in the single photograph is therefore most probably Franchain Pignolet de Fresne, born in 1815. It is probably him & Eleonore in the family photo, along with a number of their children – this photo looks probable for a Mauritius origin, perhaps before they left for Australia. Note the person in the background – possibly the ‘servant’ noted as accompanying them when they arrived in 1882.
The Pignalet name appears throughout the 1880’s and 90’s in Melbourne, relating to a school named l’Avenir, Brighton Road, St Kilda. At this private college, French was the emphasis….. in fact, an event at the Prahran Town Hall in 1891 received a lengthy review in ‘The Prahran Telegraph’ totally in French!
The school was in a house named ‘Brymedura’, which still exists at 24 Johnston Street, St Kilda. It was run by Mrs Eleonore Pignolet and her daughter Miss Nellie Pignolet – although Eleonore died in 1889. The school last advertises for students in 1929, after which it probably closed.
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