Edouard Bonie

“The worship of the past is the guarantee of the future.” These were the words, inscribed on a handwritten guide to the Bonie museum now in the possession of the madd-bordeaux, that in 1896 introduced the people of Bordeaux to the collection of Edouard Bonie (1819-1894). A magistrate in Algiers, Condom, Cahors and Agen, and later a councilor of the appellate court of Bordeaux, this civic leader assembled a remarkable collection of coins, medals, ceramics, weapons, furniture and objets d’art.

This endowment, totaling more than 3,500 pieces amassed by Bonie and his brothers over the course of their respective careers, was bequeathed upon his death to the city of Bordeaux, along with his townhouse. In the Bonie dining room, the madd seeks to recapture the eclectic charm of this residence-cum-museum (demolished in 1983), with its Louis XIII bedroom, Louis XV sitting room, Chinese sitting room, Gothic dining room, arms room, Arabic smoking room and Moorish courtyard.