Exotic New Store Brings a Global Reach

Suzanne Coppola, whose global jaunts have long provided exotic larder for her e-commerce website Laurier Blanc, has opened her first storefront. Situated in M. Naeve’s former spot next to Picnic and Raven Grill on Bissonnet, the brick-and-mortar version of Laurier Blanc showcases an extraordinary collection of 19th- and early 20th-century European hunting trophies with royal and noble provenance.

The European Hunt Collection includes pieces from Emperor Franz Josef’s castle at Eckartsau in the Austrian Alps and features a selection of roe deer trophies. A rare large fallow deer trophy taken by a European nobleman bears the hunter’s initials and includes the original brass horn used to call hounds during the hunt.

Antiques Roadshow appraiser James Supp has partnered with Coppola to valuate each piece, and the carefully-restored trophies are mounted among Coppola’s furniture and design finds. With such blue-blooded provenance, the collection can be intimidating to the uninitiated, she says.

“It’s important to be able to display the trophies with furniture so clients can visualize how to actually use them in decorative and home environments.” The gallery will also carry hand-carved works by the owner of the European Hunt Collection, an accomplished sculptor whose works often incorporate antique antlers from the royal Austrian House of Habsburg.