Lazare Duvaux (''c''.1703 – 24 November 1758) was a Parisian ''

marchand-mercier A ''marchand-mercier'' is a French language, French term for a type of entrepreneur working outside the guild system of craftsmen but carefully constrained by the regulations of a ''corporation'' under rules codified in 1613. The reduplicative ter ...

'', among the most prominent designers and purveyors of furnishings, gilt-bronze-mounted European and Chinese porcelains,

Vincennes porcelain The Vincennes porcelain manufactory was established in 1740 in the disused royal Château de Vincennes, in Vincennes, east of Paris, which was from the start the main market for its wares. History The entrepreneur in charge at first, Claude-Humbe ...

and later

Sèvres porcelain Sèvres (, ) is a French Communes of France, commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris. It is located from the Kilometre zero, centre of Paris, in the Hauts-de-Seine department of the Île-de-France region. The commune, which had a populatio ...

and all the small, refined luxuries that appealed to

Mme de Pompadour Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (, ; 29 December 1721 – 15 April 1764), commonly known as Madame de Pompadour, was a member of the French Royal court, court. She was the official maîtresse-en-titre, chief mistress of King Lou ...

, one of his most prominent clients, who entrusted the furnishing of her many

château A château (, ; plural: châteaux) is a manor house, or palace, or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking re ...

x to Duvaux. Another prominent client was

Pierre Victor, Baron de Besenval de Brunstatt Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

, who furnished his residence in Paris, the

Hôtel de Besenval The Hôtel de Besenval is a historic ''hôtel particulier'' in Paris, dating largely from the 18th century, with a ''Court of honor (architecture), cour d'honneur'' and a large English landscape garden, an architectural style commonly known as ''en ...

, with the help of Lazare Duvaux. Lazare Duvaux was retrieved from posthumous obscurity when his daybook covering the decade 1748-1758 was published in 1873; it remains a central document of the

decorative arts ] The decorative arts are arts or crafts whose aim is the design and manufacture of objects that are both beautiful and functional. This includes most of the objects for the interiors of buildings, as well as interior design, but typically excl ...

of the mid-18th century. Established in trade by 1740, he was already a ''marchand suivant le Cour'' by 1747, when he figured, as "sieur Devos, marchand-orfévre", and supplying gold boxes, among the suppliers of the king's gift of jewels to the new Dauphine for her marriage to the Dauphin. He moved his shop from the rue de la Monnaie in Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois to the fashionable rue Saint-Honoré, the center of Parisian commerce in works of art and what the French called ''la curiosité''.Courajod 1873:lxix.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duvaux, Lazare Furniture designers from Paris 1758 deaths Year of birth uncertain Material culture of royal courts