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 [Ref. 050908 MMDigest]

Dear Sir,  as the great-great-grandson of one of the Miroy brothers,
I am fascinated by the fact that they were ever makers of music boxes.
Miroy Frères were best known as clock makers and casters of bronzes.
To my knowledge this is the first I have ever discovered of that line
of work.

The address of 10 rue d'Angoulême, Paris, XIème arrondissement, is
absolutely correct.  Having spent several of the past years engaged in
the family history, I would most grateful to have a photo (JPEG) of the
piece.  Thus far I have photos of about 40 of their clocks and a good
number of their statuary.

For your information, the Miroy Frères were two of the sons of Charles
Miroy, who reached maturity and by marriage came into the metal casting
business.  The brothers were J-B Marie Miroy and Charles Adolphe Miroy.

Both sons [of Charles Adolphe] had three sons who entered the business.
The eldest of J-B, Henri, was the sculptor; Ernest Leon, the clockmaker;
and Camille (the brains) won the patents.  Of Charles Adolphe's sons,
Victor was a master clockmaker and the others were helpers in the
packing and foundry.

Ernest Leon and Victor opened a branch of the family business in London
after their success there in the 1851 Expo.  They married and moved
there permanently in 1860, where they continued first the clock and
bronze trade but later switched to tapestries (post Franco-Prussian
War).  According to French sources the bulk of their produce (90%) was
sent overseas to the UK, USA, Cuba, Argentina and Mexico.  Today one
can find their products coming up for sale in Australia, Sweden,
Germany and elsewhere.

I hope this thumbnail sketch will give you some background on the
Paris branch of the family.  The family is almost uniquely all from the
Ardennes originally and can be dated with certainty to 1595 in that area.

For any further data, please do not hesitate to write,

René Miroy
rmiroy@usadatanet.net.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]