Pocket Luxury - Small Precious Objects in the Age of Enlightenment - Paris - Until 24-11-2024

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Cognacq-Jay Museum
8 rue Elzévir
75003 Paris


Pocket Luxury - Small Precious Objects in the Age of Enlightenment

Until 24th November 2024

The exhibition Pocket Luxury at the Cognacq-Jay Museum presents an exceptional collection of small precious and sophisticated objects, made of gold, enriched with hard stones or precious stones, covered with mother-of-pearl, porcelain or translucent enamels, sometimes decorated with miniatures. The uses of these objects vary, but they all emerge from the customs and habits of a refined daily life, a sign of wealth, an intimate souvenir. During the Age of Enlightenment and in the following ones, they aroused a real craze in France first and then throughout Europe.

Luxe de poche aims to renew the way we look at these objects, by adopting a plural approach, which summons both the history of art and the history of fashion, the history of techniques, cultural history and anthropology by making these objects resonate with other works: fashion accessories, but also the clothes they complement, the furniture where they are stored or presented and finally paintings, drawings and engravings where these objects are staged. This dialogue allows us to consider these objects in the broader context of luxury and fashion in the 18th and early 19th centuries.


The starting point for this new exhibition, the remarkable collection of Ernest Cognacq, is enriched with important loans – from prestigious institutions such as the Louvre Museum, the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris, the Château de Versailles, the Palais Galliera, the English Royal Collections and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London – in order to offer a new reading of these essential luxury accessories.

Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. - Closed Mondays.

Admission: €9

https://www.museecognacqjay.paris.fr/ex ... e-de-poche