The Dupuy Mestreau Museum is housed in the Monconseil Hotel, built in 1738. The museum is advertised as a ‘cabinet of curiosities’ with about 3000 artifacts showcasing the cultural history of Saintes. The collector was Cecile Guinot de Monconseil, wife of Etienne, Marquise de Monconseil who was the first owner of the hotel.
Cecile set out to collect items that would trace the history of Saintes, though very few items have a provenance or even a description attached to them. Objects range from furniture and dishes, to clothing, shoes, jewelry, and accessories. I will post the wearable items to my Mercantile website.
First of all, the setting. Upon entering the building you immediately climb the stairs to a landing where there is a bicycle and a single person palanquin.
Further in, there are parquet wood floors and stenciled ceilings.
There are a few reconstructed rooms displayed, some with furniture pieces that I thought were novel. A library is filled with literary and technical works from the 18th-19th centuries.
There is a dish room.
This first dish, titled “The Tree of Love” was inspired by a 16th century engraving that was reproduced frequently during the 18th century; this one was manufactured in Saintes on August 4, 1772. The second is a dish of ‘rustic figurines’ that also became popular in the 18th-19th century, so much so that the style was often imitated. This one was made by Alfred Renleau in the 1890s, inspired by the glazed and enameled ceramics by Bernard Palissy, who originated the style in the early- to mid-1500s. There was an entire case devoted to this style.
There is a case of 16th-20th century green glazed terracotta produced by La Chapelle-des-Pois, an important local pottery center since the 15th century.
There’s a children’s corner, which includes a carriage, a ‘toddler walker’ and a child-sized spinning wheel.
Banks of windows reach nearly to the ceiling and flood the interior with light. It’s a beautiful setting for this diverse collection.
Daveno Travels 