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FINDERS KEEPERS | MASTERS & MUSES | WORLD OF CABANA
For the past 20 years, Jean-Bernard Gillot, antique book dealer and connoisseur of the extravagant, has sourced rare books, scientific instruments, early and modern photography, uranium glass jewelry, and other curiosities. He shares two special objects that have passed through his hands: his greatest find and the piece he'll keep forever.
BY CAMILLA GINEVRA BONUGLIA | MASTERS & MUSES | SEPTEMBER 2025
Alain Brieux, the collector behind the legendary Curiosity Cabinet in the heart of Paris’ Rive Gauche, was a passionate admirer of scientific tools. Inspired by Landau’s modern Kunstkammer, he created a space for encounters, bringing together international experts around themes such as Science, Natural History, Astronomy, and Mineralogy.
For the past 20 years, Jean-Bernard Gillot, antique book dealer and connoisseur of the extravagant, has carried on this passion by sourcing rare volumes, scientific instruments, early and modern photography, uranium glass jewelry, and other curiosities. It’s a magnificent world where butterfly cases, prosthetics, and mathematical manuscripts engage in an unexpected, surprising conversation.
My Greatest Find: Alberic Pont Collection
"The greatest find hasn’t arrived yet! But if I had to name one from the past, I no longer own it (it has already been sold!) but it would be the Alberic Pont Collection: a complete body of work about injured soldiers from the First World War.
"It included plaster models, photographic albums with over 1,000 original images, 25 scientific articles, and more. Alberic Pont (1915–1950) was a pioneer of maxillofacial surgery. Thanks to his dedication and expertise, over 7,000 soldiers injured during WWI were able to recover their faces.
"l didn't want to sell individual pieces – the collection had to remain intact. I searched for an Institution who was able to buy the entire collection and eventually found one: the Medical University Library in Paris. In 2013, before the sale, I organized an exhibition. I remember attendees wandering in tears, overwhelmed by such a prodigious body of work in such an unexpected setting. It was truly moving."
Alberic Pont Collection at Paris' Medical University Library © Camilla Ginvera Bonuglia
The Piece I'll Keep Forever: Crocodile from Alain Brieux
"The piece I would never sell is this crocodile up there! It’s been hanging from the ceiling since the shop belonged to its previous owner. In fact, it was a gift from Alain Brieux’s widow, and I could never sell something that was given to me.
This bookshop on Rue Jacob has existed since 1883, and when Alain Brieux bought it in 1958, he transformed it into a Curiosity Cabinet. I’d always admired this place, so when the opportunity to buy it arose in 2005, I couldn’t refuse. What’s most fulfilling about being the keeper of this Cabinet is that it offers a constant, endless source of learning: sourcing, researching, documenting, following the thread of an intuition."
The crocodile, a gift from Alain Brieux’s widow © Camilla Ginevra Bonuglia.
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Cabana Magazine N24
Covers by Morris & Co.
This issue will transport you across countries and continents where craft and culture converge. Evocative travel portfolios reveal Japan's elegant restraint, Peru's sacred churches ablaze with color, and striking architecture in a fading Addis Ababa. Inspiring minds from the late Giorgio Armani to Nikolai von Bismarck spark curiosity, while exclusive homes—from the dazzling Burghley House in England and an Anglo-Italian dream in Milan, to a Dionysian retreat in Patmos and a historic Pennsylvania farmhouse—become portals that recall, evoke and transport.
