Bric-a-brac for sale at an antique shop in Kabul.

Bric-a-brac shop at Nantucket circa 1880.

The term bric-à-brac (origin French)^[1] was first used in the Victorian era.

It referred then to collections of curios such as elaborately decorated teacups and small vases, feathers, wax flowers under glass domes, eggshells, statuettes, painted miniatures or photographs, and so on. Bric-à-brac was used as ornament on mantelpieces, tables, and shelves, or displayed in curio cabinets. Sometimes these cabinets had glass doors, to display the items within while protecting them from dust.

Bric-à-brac nowadays refers to a selection of items of low value, often sold in street markets.

[edit] References

Look up bric-a-brac in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Bric à Brac.

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