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Origin and history

The Ennery Museum is a private hotel built in 1875 in Paris, in the 16th arrondissement, to house the Far East collections of Madame Desgranges. This building, designed as a box for art objects, reflects the European enthusiasm of the 19th century for Asian cultures, especially Japanese and Chinese. Architecture and interior design were designed to showcase rare pieces, such as netuke, traditional Japanese jewellery, or ceramic, jade and lacquer objects.

In 1894, the dramatic author Adolphe Philippe d'Ennery, known as Dennery (1811-1899), anointed by Napoleon III, left this hotel and the 6,296 objects it contains to the French State. These pieces, mainly Japanese, had been gathered by his wife, Madame d'Ennery, to the specialized Parisian merchants. This legacy transforms the hotel into an annex museum to the Guimet Museum, dedicated to Asian arts. The collection covers a period from the 16th to the 19th century, offering a panorama of the popular and religious traditions of Japan and China.

Among the treasures of the museum are nearly a thousand netuke, the only authorized jewels for second-class men in Japan (the samurai being the first). These miniature objects, often carved in ivory or wood, illustrate daily, mythological or animal scenes. The museum also presents ceramics, lacquers and jade pieces, testifying to the craftsmanship and refined aesthetics of these civilizations. Today, the Ennery Museum, labeled Musée de France, remains an unknown but valuable place to understand the cultural exchanges between Europe and Asia at the end of the 19th century.

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