marchand mercier
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The term "marchand mercier" refers to decorative arts dealers in 18th-century France who operated outside of traditional guild restrictions. These entrepreneurs played a pivotal role in furniture making by supplying capital, managing customer relations, coordinating specialist craftsmen, and overseeing product quality, often contributing to the design itself. They were instrumental in creating complex decorative items, such as clocks that integrated diverse elements like porcelain, metalwork, and intricate movements. Notable examples include Lazare Duvaux and the partnership of Simon-Philippe Poirier and Dominique Daguerre, who were influential figures in the Parisian art market.1
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art marketThe rise of ParisDecorative arts dealers, known as marchands merciers, were allowed to surmount the French guild restrictions that forced craftsmen to specialize and prevented, for example, cabinetmakers from supplying the brass mounts on commodes. The marchand mercier therefore became a pivotal entrepreneurial figure in French furniture making, supplying capital, negotiating with customers,…
Read MoreDecorative arts dealers, known as marchands merciers, were allowed to surmount the French guild restrictions that forced craftsmen to specialize and prevented, for example, cabinetmakers from supplying the brass mounts on commodes. The marchand mercier therefore became a pivotal entrepreneurial figure in French furniture making, supplying capital, negotiating with customers,…
Read More- art marketThe rise of Paris
…best known of the 18th-century marchands merciers were Lazare Duvaux and the partners Simon-Philippe Poirier and Dominique Daguerre, all of whom had shops in the fashionable rue Saint-Honoré. Daguerre played a central role in the Anglo-French art market in the 1780s, acting simultaneously as the agent for Wedgwood in Paris…
Read More…best known of the 18th-century marchands merciers were Lazare Duvaux and the partners Simon-Philippe Poirier and Dominique Daguerre, all of whom had shops in the fashionable rue Saint-Honoré. Daguerre played a central role in the Anglo-French art market in the 1780s, acting simultaneously as the agent for Wedgwood in Paris…
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