This is the french edition catalogue relating about the exhibition The indispensable necessaire to musée national des châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau until 14 january 2008 .
Necessaires - boxes containing all the essential accessories for a certain activity - can reveal much about a particular era, about the fashions and tastes of the time.
Princess Palatine, Duchess of Orléans, was said to be one of the first to use the term “necessaire”, in the 18th century, in her correspondence. However, these boxes seem to have already been around since the 16th century. The 1743 edition of Trévoux’s dictionary defines this object as “a small box, divided into compartments, to hold a variety of necessary or convenient items when travelling”.
The first necessaires held utensils for preparing a meal or eating. They gradually became fashionable for other activities: bathroom, sewing, writing, drawing. In the 18th century, many scientific or technical necessaires were produced, with highly skilful decorative and artistic detail (Surveyor’s necessaire, Musée du Louvre, Objets d’art department). During the reign of Louis XVI, all these different uses were combined in one single set, sometimes quite large, like the famous necessaire in the Grasse international perfume museum, said to have belonged to Marie-Antoinette.
In the 18th century and in the early 19th century, the French were the undisputed masters of this art as shown by the necessaires of Martin-Guillaume Biennais, Napoleon’s goldsmith, and those of Pierre-Dominique Maire.
Prestigious, luxury items, with the monograms or arms of their owners, they held a variety of accessories made of gold, porcelain and crystal set in an inlaid or leather-bound box.
