Paris, France —Some of the great places to shop in and around Paris for highly original objects are the museum boutiques of the Rmn-Grand Palais which has brought out a host of collections, including some beautiful pieces at the Musée national des arts asiatiques – Guimet (The National Asian Arts Museum). Two shawls stood out. One in flowing rayon draws its inspiration from The Great Wave off Kanazawa woodblock print created in 1831 by the great Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai and which is found in the Guimet Museum’s permanent collections. The work and the shawl immediately stun with their eye-catching Prussian blue set off by white. Hokusai’s Bullfinch and Weeping Cherry Blossoms created in 1834 inspired another flowing shawl in dreamy silk chiffon.  

But there is more to the story. A beautiful blue and white tray depicting a dragon with a matching small bowl in melamine wood was a real standout. The handsome homeware draws its inspiration from a 14th century Meiping vase, one of the masterpieces in the collection of  the Musée national des arts asiatiques – Guimet (The National Asian Arts Museum). The vase is also a masterpiece of Chinese porcelain making. Fashioned during the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368), it was produced in the pottery-making works of Jingdezhen. Only four of these vases exist in the world. The dragon is a mythical animal and in Asia regarded as a symbol of power and luck. The dragon in white appears on the tray and small bowl in cobalt blue chasing a flaming pearl.

The Guimet is currently hosting a superb and highly original exhibition on the traditional medicines of Asia and the museum houses one of the finest collections of Asian art in the world. The Rmn-Grand Palais, Rmn is the French acronym for the Réunion des musées nationaux, distributes its own products and those brought out by others in a network of 34 bookshop-boutiques that it manages in French museums as well as on its on-line boutique. The items in this story are available at the boutique at the Guimet Museum and on the Internet at boutiquesdemusees.fr ©Trish Valicenti for The Gourmet Gazette. 

See also: https://thegourmetgazette.com/2023/07/20/the-arts-of-holistic-healing/