Wallpaper panel: Les Prodigues or Souper a la Maison doré

The tableau depicts the latter stages of an evening in a candlelit room at the well-known Maison d'Or in Paris. Pierrot is seated on the table, Harlequin sits head in hands beside him with a man and woman collapsed on the floor at their feet. This panel was displayed on Desfossé's stand at the Paris International Exhibition of 1855 and shows the lengths to which ambitious manufacturers were prepared to go to excite public comment and thus increase status and sales.