Ecuador - Expo Paris 1889
Parisians have not forgotten Mr. Antonio Florès, the kindly former Minister of Ecuador in our country. Appointed President of the Republic in his country, Mr. Florès had the honour of being offered a great banquet at the Hotel Con-tinental where more than three hundred Parisian, Spanish and American personalities wanted to show him their friendship before his departure.
He had told everyone that he intended to have his country represented at the Universal Exhibition and, although in an unofficial way, he kept his word. The Senate of Ecuador refused him the credit he requested for participation in our Exposition; immediately Mr. Florès, who has always had the greatest enthusiasm for France, opened a popular subscription. He had asked the Senate for the tiny sum of sixty thousand francs; the subscription immediately gave more than one hundred and fifty thousand. A committee was appointed in Paris, and as president, M. Ballen, Consul General of Ecuador to our government.
The pavilion, designed by M. Chedame, covers an area of one hundred square metres. It is a reproduction of one of the temples that the Incas dedicated to the Sun, and it was studied by Mr. Chedame in the works on American antiquities that Mr. Ballen made available to him. Mr. Fugère, a sculptor, French like the architect, took from the ethnographic museum of Trocadero the mouldings of the authentic pieces brought back from America by the travellers that the French Government sent there on a mission. The motif placed at the top of the main entrance is a reproduction of the one that once existed in one of the Temples of the Sun.
It is known that the main wealth of Ecuador consists in the extractive industries: one will see cocoa, coffee, cotton, cinchona, a great variety of woods, cereals, medicinal plants, skins, sugars, vegetable ivory or corozo nuts, wax, cochineal, vanilla, etc., etc.; precious metals, rock crystal, sulphur, alum and a lithological collection.
There are also embroideries, laces, silk, wool, cotton and hemp fabrics; superb Inca, archaeological and contemporary collections, for which Mr. Charles Garnier has given up the Aztec house included in the series of small buildings he has built under the name of "History of the dwelling. This special installation is called "Annexed of the Republic of Ecuador".
The interior furniture of the pavilion is made of crystal and gold, and many a socialite could take it as a model for a salon. The tapestries are gold and purple of great richness. Although the premises are not the largest, the number of exhibitors is quite considerable.
One of them is Mr. Antonio Florès, President of the Republic, who, not content with his role as promoter, wanted to appear as an industrialist.
In the evening, the Ecuadorian colony meets in this pavilion and there is no shortage of pretty women.
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