More about French antiques

1/ Be Green and Save the Planet

Each time you are buying something old (vintage, antiques ..) you are making the planet a little greener. Nowadays, I think that is very important. Antiques are inherently recycled and reused. Morever, at Charmantiques, we do our best to use recycled wrappings and boxes to make your purchase fully green. So do not hesitate, buy vintage and antiques, be green !

2/ Find something special

These days, when you are travelling, you find the same souvenir pieces all over...

The Princess Marie d'Orléans is the second daughter of the French King Louis Philippe 1st and Marie-Amélie de Bourbon Sicile. This very curious, talented and pious woman was one of the first female artist in the early 19th century and was influenced by the Romantic artistic movement. She discovered the sculpture in 1834 and her passion. She was also very interested by the French History. One heroine interested her particularly : Joan of Arc. She wanted to depict the compassion of Joan of Arc. So she broked up with the traditional iconography of Joan of Arc with a more personnal and...

A brief history of Sarreguemines

Sarreguemines is a French East town. By the end of the eighteenth century, three merchants bought an oil mill near the Sarre river and created a small pottery manufacture. In 1812, under the direction of Paul Utzschneider, the business grew until the creation of three factories under the direction of Alexandre de Geiger on the 1830's.

Majolica

Sarreguemines production is wide, but one emerges : Sarreguemines majolica. Indeed, the manufacturing of majolica started in the 1870's and rised until the first world war. But what is majolica ? It is a kind of...

When a piece is made of sterling silver in France, it recieves a hallmark that certifies it is composed by at least 800/1000 sterling silver. 

Over the centuries, French silverware hallmarks changed. Here are the main hallmarks:

• The Old Man (Vieillard) used from 1819 to 1838. There are four differents versions. Two parisians and two departemental hallmarks. First title (titre) is composed by 950/1000 sterling silver and second title is composed by 800/1000 sterling silver. 

• The Minerva used from 1838 to 1973.