GARDANNE Louis (EN)

Biographical Article

Louis Gardanne’s name first appeared in the Indicateur marseillais in 1857 (p. 386), which mentions his profession as a trader and commissionaire in transit goods, a recurrent category in thistrade guide to Marseille.

Trade Monopoly in "Chinoiserie"

The following year, his company was mentioned under the name "Gardanne, Louis et Cie", merchants in dry goods, hardware, and items from Paris (Indicateur marseillais, 1858, p. 392). His wholesale trade was mentioned as of 1862 (Indicateur marseillais, 1862, p. 835). But it was not until 1875 that Louis Gardanne and his associates appeared as sellers of "wholesale chinoiseries" (Indicateur marseillais, 1875, p. 446), a vague term covering a certain number of objects that would be specified the following year. The years from 1875 to 1881 were prosperous for the merchant, who establisheda monopoly in Marseilles onthe trade in “chinoiserie". The enterprisegrew larger, addinga retail store to the wholesale counter at 15, cours du Chapitre. In 1876, he ran a full-page advertisement that appeared in the preamble to the directory. The address at 19, rue de la Darse, in the first arrondissement of Marseille, wasdescribed as combining a "Chinese Store" and a "Japanese Museum". Its offerings expanded thereafter. In addition to works of art and curiosities, the company also offered other direct import products for sale, quite exotic for the time: spices (cinnamon, several kinds of coffee and tea) , as well as rattan hats from Manila and Java. In 1877, it was included in the newly created category "Articles from China and Japan" (Indicateur marseillais, p. 781). He held a monopoly on it until 1880.

Louis Gardanne Facing the Competition

The following year, he shared the stage with Barthélémy Bernard, whose business was located at 137, boulevard Longchamp (Indicateur marseillais, 1881, p. 821). In 1882, he was replaced by Nicolas Ansaldi, whose shop had a storefront at 11, place Saint-Ferréol. Louis Gardanne also fit into other commercial categories. Although his business in chinoiseries still appeared in the pages of the directory in 1883,in the following publications this specialty would disappear.

The Fine Arts Exhibition in Marseille (1879)

The 1879 retrospective exhibition of fine arts in Marseille certainly gave him an opportunity to make himself known and gave him great visibility among connoisseurs of art. The unusual objects he exhibited in showcase no. 8 caught the attention of Louis Brès of the Sémaphore de Marseille (1879).

Subsequently, La Jeune République advertised the "splendid Chinese Store" of Gardanne, "the most fashionable", which was "one of the curiosities of Marseilles" not to be missed. The advertisement refers to all these "fantasies" and "all the exceptional novelties which Japanese and Chinese industry and art produce most remarkably" (1879).

Establishment in Tonkin

Consistently appearing among the “commissionaires in transit goods", he appears in the classification framework as "hardware" and “merchants of straw hats", withdrawn from this last category as of 1882, certainly due to competition in this field. From then on, Louis Gardanne was reported exclusively as “trader-commissionaire”. This was because the trader was setting up a larger project.

In line with the explorer and merchant Jean Dupuis (1829-1912), in 1881 Gardanne founded with Eugène Koenig what seems to be "the first trading house established in Hanoi", in the words of Claire Villemagne, who found traces of this company in the archives of the Chamber of Commerce of Marseille(2003). L'Indicateur mentioned him only as an agent of the Société franco-tonkinoise d'Hanoï (Tonkin) in 1885, when the company collapsed, obliged to face competition from English and German products and to deal with a geopolitical situation that had become unstable. Louis Gardanne had just enough time to take refuge at the French consulate, warned by the war council that the district would be condemned by fire (Villemagne C., 2003).

From 1893 to 1910, the company continued in Marseille and was reduced to the single name of "Louis Gardanne", including a change of address in 1900, where he moved from 78, boulevard du Musée, to occupy 3, rue Colbert.

The Collection

The announcement of the Indicateur marseillais of the year 1876 lists the various products offered for sale by Louis Gardanne and his associates. Visitors to the Chinese shop and the Japanese Museum could contemplate a "rich collection of ancient and modern objects of art and curiosities" from the countries of Southeast Asia, India, China, and Japan (between p. 224 and p. 225, advertisement p. 20). Cloisonné enamels, bronzes, porcelains, earthenware, statuettes, lacquers, embroidery, silks, fans, screens, blinds, and mats wereon display.

Alongside such pieces were commonly used items, of artisanal craftsmanship. Gardanne sold hats from Manila and Java, as well as exotic foodstuffs such as coffee, tea, and cinnamon.

The merchant's personal taste for Asian art can be learned about when visiting the retrospective exhibition of the Beaux-Arts in Marseille, where Louis Gardanne displayed his own collection, made up of Chinese vases and armour of the same origin. (Bres L., 1879). At this stage in our research, we have not found any trace of this collection.