Whether it be colonial entanglements in Southeast Asia, and the first stirrings of japonisme; or the celebration of industrial techniques, such as
galvanoplasty and aluminium plating; or the rediscovery of native craft techniques, such as Claudius Popelin's painted 'Limoges' enamels: the political dead-end of the Second Empire should not conceal its generative power across many artistic domains.
In the 1860s, when Norges Bank wanted to produce notes with better paper quality and more modem production techniques (based on
galvanoplasty and mechanised engraving), Saunders, a paper and banknote manufacturer in London, offered to print the notes.