Buffetkast 1885 - 1895

Curator: Here we have "Buffetkast," a print and etching on paper by Léon Laroche, created sometime between 1885 and 1895. What are your first thoughts? Editor: Imposing, certainly! Like a cathedral for cutlery. All those delicate lines forming a kind of fortress. I almost expect to see gargoyles! Curator: Well, it's drawing on Neoclassical motifs— that striving for symmetry, the clean lines. It's definitely aiming for that aura of established power and enduring good taste. Though the etching medium also offers softness. It’s quite detailed but has a subdued and subtle presence. Editor: Exactly! Subdued elegance, I’d call it. It’s functional, a cabinet—yet so ornate, it becomes almost non-functional, more like an aspirational emblem. It whispers of secret rituals around dining and the curated display of family treasures. And all those vertically striving lines echo Gothic cathedrals, pulling the eye upward and imparting a sense of solemnity. It really makes me consider domestic spaces and the things we decide to surround ourselves with. Curator: Yes, and Laroche is using the design of the Louis XII style to evoke those notions. Style carries cultural memory, after all. Even a depiction like this serves to legitimize current tastes with perceived history and quality. And that impulse can be seen again and again over history in shifting forms. Editor: And of course, let's not forget this is a design, meant to inspire and persuade, selling a lifestyle where every object, even the humble buffet, can represent the grandeur of another era, perhaps even transforming your dining room into its own sort of reliquary of taste and refinement. That makes me wonder: what would a buffet cabinet look like today? What cultural memory would *it* try to capture? Curator: An interesting thought to end on. Thank you for your time and insights. Editor: It was my pleasure. It has certainly added new layers of appreciation to what could have been a straightforward representation of furniture.