Antique French Gilded Painting
Found:
Marché aux Puces de Paris Saint-Ouen
One of Paris’ most iconic flea markets makes for the best place to find a gift for the hard to please fashionistas and savvy hipsters.
The business of collecting (scrap metal, various rags…) has been part of Paris' life forever. At night, rag-and-bone men "biffins", or "crocheteurs" (pickers) travelled through the capital in search of their loot. Driven out of the city at the end of the 19th century by the new authorities anxious to clean up the capital of France, these rag-and bone men set up camp and hotel between the fortifications and the first houses built in the village of Saint-Ouen. Little by little, it wasn't long before open-air cafés and dance halls appeared, along with numerous stalls where the people of Paris would come by on a Sunday to stroll and perhaps stop for a small glass of white wine as yet untaxed. Between 1905 and 1914, the picturesque description by the press brought an increase in the number of curious visitors and traders. A trend was launched ; the Flea Market was born…
Approx 5x7. Original painting with gold leaf frame.