Wine Woman Hall of Fame: Empress Josephine’s 13,000 bottle cellar on exhibit.
an insert from: “Le Banquet des souverains Tilsit Musee Carnavalet- Histoire de Paris, France” Gravure en couleur d’apres Swebach – Jacques Desfontaines, H.38.5 x L 42.4 cm/Musee Carnavalet/Roger Viollet
The Contents of Empress Josephine’s wine cellar is on exhibition in 2010. She sure knew how to throw a party. From the best crus in Bordeaux and Burgundy to rum and liqueurs from the West Indies, her inventory was striking in its range and variety. The evolution of wine production and marketing during the Empire also reveals the progress in the glassmaking industry. Elegant ice buckets, glass coolers, crystal and metal punch bowls illustrate the refinement and prestige of the tableware at Malmaison and stand alongside the most brilliant pieces of glassware, some bearing the monograms of the sovereigns from Josephine to Louis-Philippe.
The exhibition brings together more than two hundred objets d’art and iconographic documents not only from the Musée de Malmaison but from the collections of the museums of the Château de Fontainebleau, the Château de Compiègne, the Château d’Eu (Musée Louis-Philippe), the Musée Carnavalet, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the Musée National de Céramique de Sèvres, the Archives Nationales, the Fondation Napoléon, the musée Napoléon Thurgovie, château et parc d’Arenenberg, (canton of Thurgovia, Switzerland) and the Museo Napoleonico, Rome. Other items are on loan from industrial or commercial firms such as Moët et Chandon, or from private collections. Taking an artistic and historical angle, the exhibition shows that Josephine’s cellar is a precious testimony to the gracious entertaining which long made the charm and reputation of Malmaison.
This exhibition will be shown at the musée Napoléon Thurgovie, château et parc d’Arenenberg, in Salenstein, Switzerland, from 10 April to 10 October 2010, then at the Museo Napoleonico in Rome, from October 2010 to 28 February 2011.
