week-end tresor....

Bonjour mes belles,

I hope that you had a nice week-end.

Ours was a busy one which started with the Tour de France passing through our village on Friday afternoon and it finished yesterday with a visit to a local antique fair where I bought this fabulous buste of Jesus Christ which now has pride of place in French Boyfriend's antique shop.

It is very heavy hence Guy was not impressed, as it was he, that had the responsibility of carrying him to the car where he was carefully wrapped in an antique sheet.

Unfortunately there was not a lot of treasure to be had and I am hoping that August results in lots of fabulous objects as we are running a bit low on stock......

très bonne semaine à tous, Leeann x

an interesting find...

Bonjour mes belles,

I hope that you all had a fabulous weekend. Ours was spent shifting stock into the new boutique and I have a feeling that is a lot more of this to come. We have two garages full of stock and this combined with a lot of boxes that arrived from a chateau in Normandy, is resulting in space issues and we thought that we would have trouble filling what we initially thought, was a large space. 

One of the first items that I unwrapped was the fabulous antique benitier that you see in the photos above and below. 

It is the first that I have ever come across from Notre Dame de la Delivrande and it is not an subject that I am familiar with so I searched on the internet and this is what I found......



The Tradition:
It says that the first chapel of Our Lady of Deliverance was built by St. Regnobert in the 3rd century. The saint was the closest disciple and successor of St. Exupère, the first evangelizer and bishop of the area. It is said that while Regnobert and his parents were still Pagans, his mother and father would often go worship “idols” on Mt. "Phaunus", while their son preferred a little Christian chapel in the village. Latter place had been dedicated by St. 

Exupère by turning a Pagan holy site into one consecrated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Later, when St. Regnobert himself was bishop, he followed in the footsteps of his spiritual father and turned another important Pagan holy site into a sanctuary of the Mother of God, installing in it the original Madonna of Délivrande. – Again, they don’t sound like idol smashers, but like idol baptizers.
St. Regnobert’s 3rd century oratory was burnt and destroyed by Norman invaders in 830. But as it turned out later, the statue of the Madonna, though darkened by the smoke of the fire, had survived the attack and lay buried under the rubble for three centuries.
 
One day around 1150, a shepherd noticed that one of his rams kept withdrawing from the herd. He would go to a certain place and strike the earth with his feet and horns, digging until he’d tire and go to sleep on the spot. He wouldn’t eat during this time and yet remained the fattest of the sheep. Eventually the owner of the meadow recognized the strange behavior of the ram as a sign from Heaven and ordered the hole the animal had started to be excavated further. That’s how the statue of the Black Madonna was found. She was carried in a joyful and solemn procession to the parish church and installed there. But soon she miraculously appeared back at the place of her discovery. So a church was built for her on top of the ruins of the original Pagan holy site, where she insisted on dwelling.Only a couple of Romanesque arches remain of this church. It was replaced by the present basilica in the 19th century. There Our Lady of Deliverance rests on a pillar on which are carved angels pulling souls out of purgatory. 

For more on the significance of the pillar
On the wall behind the Black Madonna is a case containing a set of hand cuffs. This commemorates a well attested 16th-century miracle concerning a merchant who found himself at sea as the prisoner on a Turkish ship. He prayed to Our Lady for Deliverance, promising he would make a pilgrimage to her shrine if she heard his prayer. Suddenly his irons came free from the wall of the ship and he was able to flee. 
As promised, he went straight to the feet of Notre Dame de la Délivrande, with a seemingly irremovable iron ring still around his neck. As he prayed, the neck-piece fell to the ground with a clatter.
The Black Madonna of Deliverance’s feast day is celebrated on the Saturday following August 15th. The shrine and its pilgrims are taken care of by a special order of priests, the Missionaries of the Délivrande. They did a good job spreading her fame. In the late 19th century a bishop from Brittany, a neighboring region, brought a copy of the Black Madonna of Normandy to Senegal and founded a sanctuary in her honor, where she continues to be loved and revered by her African children. 

There are not a lot of religious souvenirs from Delivrande remaining so this is a rare and interesting piece and the history makes it that little bit more special....

Back to the boxes I must go, très bonne semaine à tous, Leeann x

p.s. I am happy to report that the fabulously french domain name is back up and running!

week-end tresors...

Bonjour from a cooler SW France,

For the first time in what seems like a very long time, we saw some rain yesterday and fortunately for us, it arrived in the afternoon so we were able to  do some treasure hunting in the morning.

First find was this lovely vintage goblet from Lourdes. It is made from pewter and has three images from lourdes on it...

 

 

You will find it here.

Next up was this antique French Old Paris (Porcelaine de paris or Vieux Paris) porcelain statue which depicts the Virgin Mary.

 
Typical of the tradition of Old Paris porcelain, gillded lines highlight the curves of the statue.

The interior of the statue features a stamped number.  It is in very good condition with the exception of some loss of the gilded highlighting and she has lost a small part oif her hand on the right hand side which is not noticeable unless you look closely.
Date: circa 1880. You will find her here.

From the same seller, was this vintage holy water font which is a souvenir from lourdes and has marked on it "sir de Lourdes" which translates to souvenir from Lourdes.

 

You can find more details here.

The final find of the day was this fabulous hand wall light which comes from a house in Paris and is the last thing that you expect to find in country France. It is very decoative and would look fabulous in a hall or a powder room.

Think that about covers all of yesterdays tresors, back to work I must go.

Je vous souhaite un bon début de semaine et un tout doux Lundi, Leeann x

latest finds...

Bonjour mes amies,

What a fabulous week-end it was, with everything happening at the same time.

We kicked off the week-end with a dinner party with friends from Antibes and FB did our region proud serving duck, foie gras along with some fabulous local wines.

The weekend ended with FB purchasing an 18th century couch last night, which was far too big to fit inside the car and as a result had to be strapped to the roof rack. You can imagine the looks that we got from locals especially in one particular village where there was a fete taking place and we were obliged to drive through it!

As promised here are some photos of the objects that I found on Thursday.

First up is this lovely mannequin which is now at home in one of our apartments at Maison No.20. 

Next up is this French clock which is very decorative and is in perfect working order.

 

Love the detail on this, the couple are so charming.

 

You can details here.

Next up was 20 of these vintage French Madeleine tins which are great for making madeleines or using as candle holders.

There are two sets of 6 and 1 set of 8 available.

 

You will find them here.

Looking very at home is this lovely deer's head, not everyone's cup of tea I know, but they always sell well.

Other treasures included an antique print of a hot air balloon over Versailles which is now hanging in one of the bedrooms in apartment deux. Note this is not the best of photos but at least it gives you an idea of what it looks like.

FB mentioned that the stand opposite him was selling some pearl necklaces which would be perfect for the deers head alias Madame Biche so I raced across to take a look.

I found a couple that are perfect for her and at the same time bought these.....

For those of you that do not know what these are, they are knife rests or porte couteau in French as the French do not change knifes between courses so these are useful for dinner parties or when FB's mother comes for lunch.

My favourite find of the day was a wasp waisted mannequin but she is at FB's so will take a photo later in the day. Needless to sday I was very happy with this find as I have waited 6 years to find one!

très bonne semaine à tous, Leeann x

Week-end tresors....

Bonjour from a still sunny and hot SW France,

I hope that you had a fabulous week-end. Ours as per normal was a busy one and French Boyfriend decided to hold a vide-garage yesterday as there was a brocante taking place in the grounds of the old chateau.

End result, we now have a lot of space in the garage.....almost enough to park a car.

We still have a couple of lovely carved bed ends should anyone be looking some. They are intricately carved and came out of a local chateau hence they are not the run of the mill style that you often find in France.

I managed to find a couple of treasures yesterday despite the small number of sellers as I think that the hot weather really put them off coming, which was a shame as it is such a lovely setting.

My favourite find of the day is this fabulous and very romantic looking antique clock.

Although it no longer works, it really is a stunning and most decorative object.

I particularly love the detail on top of the clock...

You will find it here.

Another find was this adorable wall hanging which is signed MD, and on the back it is marked Reves d'Aiguille Michele Delarche.

You can find more details here.

Another find was this fabulous petite napoleon III style jewellery box which is perfect for storing and displaying a favourite piece.

My last find of the day will make and American readers smile as it was a pair of vintage French flags that date from back to world war II. Note I have not had time to photograph them or decide what I will do with them. 

Je vous souhaite un bon début de semaine et un tout doux Lundi ♥ ♥

Leeann x

week-end tresors...

Bonjour,

I hope that you all had a fabulous weekend. Here it was a lovely sunny weekend so we managed to get a lot done and yesterday we spent the morning hunting for treasure.

One of my favourite finds was the antique cake server that you see in the photo above.

It comes complete with fabulous box which is very decorative in itself.....

 

The handle is made from sterling silver and the serving part is made from metal. It is beautifully accented on the front of the serving part with Acanthus Leaf design. 

 

 

 The handle is exquisitely done in the Rococo style. Beautiful Scrolls and Swirls with Lattice design accents can be seen.

From the same antique dealer came this antique silver and vermeil sauce/gravy server. These are rare to find and it is even rarer to find one in it's original box.

 

Both these pieces are stunning and I think that make for lovely and unusual gifts. 

Next up is a vintage style key cabinet which is perfect if you want something that is petite and does not take a great deal of space.

 

There is space for three sets of keys.

 

Close up of the print on the front of the cabinet, it is adorable.

Another of the weekend's treasures is this beautiful antique late 1800's French Lourdes Rosary.

Large Priests style rosary traditionally worn on the journey home around the waist or girdle by pilgrims and hung on the walls or doors of the practising home.

An usual find was this elaborate antique lace hair ornament which came complete with postcard showing how it could have been worn.

 

I loved it the minute that I saw it but thought that it would be expensive so did not stop to ask the price.

The second time that I passed the stand it was gone and I was  sad not to see it there.

French Boyfriend arrived on the scene and started talking to the seller who turned out to be an old friend of his family. The seller then turned to get an item to place on the table in front of us, to my delight it turned out to be the lovely lace object. End result I am the proud owner of this lovely and unusual item.

I am now on the hunt for an antique stand to display it on.....


Other finds were an antique moroccan pouf which is perfect for our moroccan section in our new shop, a lovely chandelier which needs cleaning and an adorable lamp which also needs cleaning.


You have guessed what the next task is on my list of things to do.....cleaning or as it is called in French "nettoyage".

Je vous souhaite un bon début de semaine et un tout tout doux Lundi ♥ ♥ Leeann x

week-end tresor?!

Bonjour from a very sunny SW France,

Looks like we are in for a week of sunshine so it will great to get a few outdoor type jobs done such as painting, cleaning windows etc.

For some reason or another yesterday, French boyfriend bet me to most of the treasure hence it was he that found the fabulous chandelier, stunning late 18th century fire dogs and fabulous Napoleon III style mannequin with the wasp style waist.

As you can see from the photos, the fabric  that covers her torso is beyond saving so I am  tossing up between finding someone that can recover her in a similar fabric or hoping that the newspapers that lie underneath the fabric and the wool lining are in good enough condition to save and expose or add a few pieces should they have deteriorated with age.

Should anyone out there be a dab hand in recovering mannequins and feel like giving me a hand, please drop me a line....

On Saturday we went to visit a friend that is selling their chateau hence I came home with a couple of treasures including an 18th century silk lined object which French Boyfriend thinks would have been used to hold sewing items as it is too fancy to be a rubbish bin. 

Looking inside you can really see how gorgeous the fabric is....

and lastly a close up of the side detail.....

Another treasure from the same place was this Napoleon III ornate frame containing a lovely portrait....for me this is fabulously French and it was love at first sight or as the French say coupe de foudre.

Love the detail of the frame......it really is stunning!

And on that note, I am off to do some work.

très bonne semaine à tous, Leeann x

week-end tresors...

Bonjour mes belles,

I hope that you all have a nice weekend. We had a fabulous one but we did not find as many treasures as we had hoped for but as it is a holiday here this Wednesday there are quite a few brocantes taking place so we have everything crossed that we find some goodies on Wednesday.

One of yesterdays finds was a vintage "Our Lady of Fatima" music box, which plays ava maria and when you plug her in, she is surrounded in a beautiful  multi-coloured aura.

She is adorable and in immaculate condition. You will find more details here. An unusual and rare piece.


Next up is set of 5 antique booklets which are great for decorating as they are or tied with a piece of string or ribbon.

Another find was this antique publicity wall hanging for Bougies de Clichy. Love the vibrant colours and the detail of the design.

One of the last finds of the day was this Napoleon III Benetier/ Holy water font and crucifix. 

We have had these in stock before but this is the first time that we have had a green one as the others were all in red velvet.

There is also an eglise style candelabra which needs to be cleaned, this is one of my tasks for this afternoon and a fgabulous bed cover which has never been used and is made from a 70's style fabric which is very fashionable at present, around the globe.

I have just quickly snapped a photo, so that you can see how pretty the fabric is. Note it is enormous and weighs heavy so it will be a "collection only" item.

You will find details of all new arrivals here.

I have now off to clean the candelabra....

Bon début de semaine à tous, Leeann x