The Arcades
 
"Most of the Paris arcades came into being during the decade
and a half which followed 1822. The first condition of their emergence was
the boom in the textile trade. The magasins de nouvea uté, the first establishments
that kept large stocks of goods on the premises, began to appear. they
were the forerunners of the department stores. It was the time of which
Balzac wrote: 'The great poem of display chants its stanzas of colo ur
from the Madeleine to the gate of Saint-Denis'. The arcades were the
centre of the luxury goods trade. The manner in
which they were fitted out displayed Art in the service of the salesman.
Contemporaries never tired of admiri ng them...An illustrated Paris guide
said: 'These arcades, a new contrivance of industrial luxury, are glass
covered, marble floored passages through entire blocks of houses, whose
proprietors have joined forces in the venture. On both sides of these pass
ages, which obtain their light from above,
there are arrayed the most elegant shops, so that such an arcade is a
city, indeed a world, in minature'. The arcades were the setting for the
first gas lighting." 1935
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