GINIER Paul (EN)

Biographical Article

During the exhibition of Paul Ginier's collection in Paris, Henri Nicolle indicated that "this rich museum is the fruit of thirty years of work and eight trips to India, Japan, and China undertaken by Mr. Paul Ginier of Marseille (Musée des familles, 1841, p. 213). Meanwhile, the Bulletin de la Société de géographie, in the minutes of its meeting of February 18, 1841, reported with more realism: "Mr. Jomard points out the Sino-Japanese collection of M. Paul Ginier, of Marseilles, made several voyages to China and to the Indian Ocean.” Japan was then inaccessible to the French, but Japanese objects could be found in the open ports of China and Southeast Asia.

After an exhibition in Marseilles in 1839, Paul Ginier's collection was presented in Paris at the Bazar Bonne-Nouvelle at 26 boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle in 1840-1842. The printed catalog reports that it was acquired by M. Deschaux et Cie (perhaps a relative of Marie-Magdeleine Deschaux, third wife of Paul Ginier, married October 28, 1837). We learn that he "undertook several trips to India" to bring together this collection (Catalogue du musée chinois et japonais créé par M. Paul Ginier, de Marseille et acquis par M. Deschaux et Cie, 1845).

Collection Acquired by the Royal Museums

Besides the raw material samples cataloged at the end, the catalog of the Bazar Bonne-Nouvelle of 1840 (Ginier P., Paris, 1845) describes 2,612 objects from the Chinese and Japanese collection of Paul Ginier under the numbers 1 to 866 (or rather, under 822 numbers because a typographical error caused 40 numbers to be missing).

The provenance of the objects is precisely indicated: 995 objects come from China, 941 from Japan. The other 875 objects come from other Southeast Asian countries, including many from Java, the Pacific Islands, and even the eastern coast of Africa. Here is the list in order of arrival in the catalog: Bengal, Java, Muscat (Sultanate of Oman), Cochinchina, Moluccas, Macassar, Amboyna (Ambon, Moluccas), Persia, Manila (Philippines), New Guinea, Celebes, Palimbang (Philippines), Pegu [Burma], Ternate (Moluccas), Sumatra, Borneo, Madura (neighbouring island of Java), Sandwich (Hawaii Islands), Ceylon, Bombay, India, Siam, Madagascar, Manado (Celebes), New Holland (Australia), Bailly, Arabia, Côte Mozambie, Wanikoro (Solomon Islands).

Collections in Museums

By decision of November 20, 1842, the Royal Museums spent the agreed price of 8,250 francs for the acquisition of 98 lots. More than 200 objects or graphic works entered the collections of the Musée de la Marine, installed on the second floor of the Cour Carrée du Louvre before its transfer to the Palais de Chaillot after 1939. At least twenty-eight items are described as Chinese, twelve as Japanese, fifteen as Javanese, five from Ternate, and others from various Southeast Asian countries or Vanikoro (MMAR, inventories, s. c.).

The presence of Japanese objects (this country being accessible only to Dutch or Chinese traders who had outposts in Nagasaki) was of particular interest to the administration of the royal museums. They were probably acquired near Batavia (now Jakarta), as they are similar to those found in the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde in Leiden.

Among the twenty-four objects currently preserved at the Musée national de la Marine, in addition to an extraordinary Chinese "birdcage in the form of a floating house" (Catalogue du musée chinois et japonais créé par M. Paul Ginier, de Marseille et acquis par M. Deschaux et Cie, 1845, no. 158), there are several models of boats: one clove boat comes from the Moluccas Islands (no. 778); one junk is Chinese (#637); and five examples are Japanese - two coaster vessels (#669 and 670); a "flat boat, a kind of barge used by the Japanese at Nangasakki [sic] for the landing of Dutch and Chinese goods" (no. 673) and two small dinghies, one with sails (no. 674) and one without (no. 675). Several paintings on paper were acquired at the same sale, also conserved at the maritime museum. Some are Chinese: one depicts a Chinese junk; nine others, depicting different types of Chinese boats, are currently mounted in a single frame, but may be from a typical Cantonese production album. Three others, "framed under glass", are Japanese: one represents Deshima (no. 677 bis and 677 ter). These three anonymous works can be attributed to Kawahara Keiga (1786-c. 1860), a painter from Nagasaki specialising in this type of view (L'Or du Japon, 2010, n° 99, 100, 101, repr.; À l’aube du japonisme, 2017, cat. Nos. 9, 10, 11.).

The ethnographic collections, which no longer formed part of the program of the Musée de la Marine from the beginning of the 20th century, were for the most part dispersed among various sites.

Parts were sent to the Antiquités nationales in Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1907 and 1911, for a room of comparative ethnography that was apparently neverrealised. Many objects returned in 1930 to enrich the collections of the Musée de l'Homme in preparation at the Palais de Chaillot and are now at the musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac. We can cite descriptions directly from Paul Ginier in 1840 of four models of Japanese houses in Nagasaki: “665. A house of the lower class which had walls of paper; 666. A Japanese house of the distinguished class which contained three figures “in the true dress of their state”; 667. A Japanese shop for silk stuffs; 668. A Japanese guardhouse “as found in the great cities of Japan.” These objects have since lost their accessories and their figures (À l’aube du japonisme, 2017, cat. n° 12.; Cluzel, Gautier, Nishida, 2018, fig. 1 to 4, p. 139 to 141, repr.).

In 1924, the musée des Beaux-Arts of Brest received a Japanese miniature palanquin in black and gold lacquer (1840, no. 248), the most luxurious of the three offered for sale, that contained a doll with a male hairstyle and costume. This doll was mistaken for one of the "Japanese ladies sitting on cushions", the other doll having since disappeared: it is an object exhibited in Japan on the day of the festival of girls (Lacambre G., 2008 , p. 174, fig. 62; L’Or du Japon, 2010, n° 102, repr.; Lacambre G., 2012, p. 59 fig. 5 (liste p. 15) ; À l’aube du japonisme, 2017, n° 13, repr.).

Under the Second Republic, a "room of savagery" was organised at the Louvre, the description of which, dated May 1, 1848 and preserved in the archives of the Musée de la Marine (MMAR, inventories, s. c.), mentions 83 civilisations from around the world. Among the countries represented were China (53 objects) and Japan, from which about fifteen objects were included, such as the model of palanquin now in the museum of Brest, as well as two boxes from Paul Ginier containing "double pins for a woman's hairstyle” and "flowers for a lady's finery", some of which seem to have been sent to the Musée de l'Homme in 1946 (currently at the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac).

Collection Acquired by Sèvres

The musée de la manufacture de Sèvres bought seven ceramic pieces for its collections showing the variety of techniques used: among the Japanese objects, the most expensive (150 francs) was a sculpture in white clay with brown glaze representing a turtle and her baby on a rock (À l’aube du japonisme, 2017, cat. n° 14), a stoneware jug with a "shark skin" lid (À l’aube du japonisme, 2017, n° 15, repr.), a covered bowl in the shape of a chrysanthemum 25 cm in diameter in polychrome earthenware (À l’aube du japonisme, 2017, cat. n° 16), a porcelain stoneware teapot, decorated with a landscape in polychrome enamels in light relief under a colourless cover (À l’aube du japonisme, 2017, cat. n° 17).

Other Items

The other objects offered for sale ended up on the market for curiosities: the Musée d'Ennery still has several objects to compare with those described in the collection of Paul Ginier. They must have entered Clémence d'Ennery's collection early, as no invoices are extant; we can note two Japanese checkerboards described in the catalog of 1840: "592. A square Japanese checkerboard in yellow wood, supported by four feet with 324 squares traced by black lines", but the 360 ​​tokens in black and white agate are missing; “593. An id. Japanese [checkerboard] in a square of 36 c 2 p., divided into 9 side squares by black lines": the 41 wooden tokens, in the shape of small pyramids with Japanese characters are also absent.