{{Short description|Lesser objets d'art for display}} {{Other uses}} {{Redirect|Knick knacks||Knick Knack (disambiguation)}} {{use dmy dates|date=December 2022}} [[File:Big Day Out stalls, Cambridge, July 2010 (01).JPG|thumb|upright|Bric-à-brac for sale at a street market in Cambridge]]
'''Bric-à-brac''' ({{IPA|fr|bʁi.ka.bʁak|lang}}) or '''bric-a-brac''' (from French), first used in England during the Victorian era, around 1840, refers to lesser objets d'art forming collections of curios. The French phrase ''a brick et a brac'' dates from the 16th century meaning "at random, any old way".
Shops selling such items, often referred to as "knick knacks" today, were often referred to as purveyors of "fancy goods",<ref>{{cite web |title=Fancy goods (British English) |url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/fancy-goods |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20221224034644/https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/fancy-goods |archive-date=December 24, 2022 |access-date=February 2, 2026 |website=Collins English Dictionary}}</ref> which might also include novelty items and other giftware.<ref>{{cite web |last=Reynolds |first=Tony |date=23 June 2017 |title=Fancy goods |url=https://reynoldshistorycastleknockblog.wordpress.com/tag/fancy-goods/ |access-date=24 December 2022 |website=History of Castleknock |type=Blog}}</ref>{{User-generated inline|date=February 2026}} The curios in these shops or in home collections might have included items such as elaborately decorated teacups and small vases, compositions of feathers or wax flowers under glass domes, decorated eggshells, porcelain figurines, painted miniatures or photographs in stand-up frames.
In middle-class homes, bric-à-brac was used as ornament on mantelpieces, tables, and shelves, or was displayed in curio cabinets; sometimes these cabinets have glass doors to display the items within while protecting them from dust.
Today, "bric-à-brac" refers to a selection of items of modest value, often sold in street markets and charity shops.
In Yiddish, such items are known as ''tchotchkes''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tchotchke |url=https://www.oed.com/dictionary/tchotchke_n?tl=true |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20230827050013/https://www.oed.com/dictionary/tchotchke_n?tl=true |archive-date=2023-08-27 |access-date=2026-02-02 |website=Oxford English Dictionary |language=en}}</ref>
Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman Jr., in ''The Decoration of Houses'' (1897), distinguished three gradations of quality in such "household ornaments": ''bric-à-brac'', ''bibelots'' (trinkets) and objets d'art.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wharton |first=Edith |author-link=Edith Wharton |title=The Decoration of Houses |title-link=The Decoration of Houses |last2=Codman |first2=Ogden |author-link2=Ogden Codman Jr. |year=1897 |p=184 |chapter=XVI "Bric-à-brac" |quote=French speech... has provided at least three designations, each indicating a delicate and almost imperceptible gradation of quality.}}</ref>
==See also== * Antique shop * Discount store * Novelty item * Staffordshire dog figurine * Variety store
==References== {{reflist}}
{{commons category|Bric-à-brac}} {{Wiktionary|bric-a-brac|bric-à-brac}} {{Wikisource1911Enc|Bric à Brac}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bric-a-brac}} Category:Collecting Category:Reuse Category:Memorabilia
{{Retail}} {{hist-stub}}