Grand Duchy of Luxembourg - Expo Paris 1889

The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg has granted a subsidy to those Luxembourgers who wished to take part in the Champ de Mars Exhibition. This subsidy, which amounts to 20,000 francs, has enabled this small country to create a very original installation. The section, which occupies a single bay between Romania and Norway, covers about 150 square metres and has about twenty exhibitors.
An octagonal pavilion, surmounted by a cut-out dome, stands in the middle of the section and is the main decoration. This pavilion, in the Berain style, houses the exhibition of Mr. Lamort, a paper manufacturer. These papers are arranged on an octagonal shelf, also forming a pyramid. Under the same pavilion are the exhibitions of the Mondorf baths and the glove factory of Mr. Mager. The former shows pyramids of bottles of Mondorf water and pastilles made with the salts contained in these waters.
To the right of this pavilion, on the way to the Norwegian section, is the official exhibition of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. The exhibition of public works with numerous maps and plans can be seen: the Post Office and Telegraphs show us a map of the duchy with all the poles, all the telegraph and telephone stations connected by wires. Further on, there is an exhibition of numismatics and Luxembourg charters with medals and parchments giving the history of the country. Then there is the agricultural section with maps, plans and drawings showing the comparative state of the Grand Duchy today and what it was a hundred years ago. Then there is the prison section with objects made by prisoners and, finally, the education section with a very curious reduction of a school room.
To the left of the central pavilion is the private industry section, in which we should mention the drapery factory of Mr. Godchaux, the tobacco and cigars of Mr. Heintz von Landewych, and the furniture of Messrs. Champagne frères, who are exhibiting a beautiful bedroom.
When we have said that it was Mr. Vaudoyer, architect of the Press pavilion, who installed the Luxembourg section and that it was Mr. Godon, decorator of the same pavilion, who decorated the same section, we shall have said everything about the Duchy of Luxembourg at the Champ de Mars.
But this valiant little country is still represented everywhere, at the Quai d'Orsay, in the agricultural sections; in the mining section, at the Pont des Invalides, where it occupies a small pavilion in varnished wood, decorated with samples of ores and cast iron; next door, the Société d'apiculture (Beekeeping Society) occupies a similar pavilion containing a modelled beehive.
And it is with regard to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg that we can make this remark, that small exhibitions for containing few things, can contain only very interesting things and of an intelligent selection.

© Guide Bleu du Figaro et du Petit Journal 1889