Christofle : A brilliant story

Description

The Musée des Arts Décoratifs, which has maintained close links with Christofle since the second half of the 19th century, is celebrating the goldsmith's creations and skills of excellence by organising the biggest exhibition ever dedicated to this company, which has a rich history spanning almost two hundred years. Since its foundation in the 1830s, this line of silversmiths, created by Charles Christofle and continued by Henri Bouilhet, has transformed the lines and decorations of silver to adapt them to everyday life. In association with the greatest designers such as Luc Lanel, Gio Ponti, Andrée Putman and Karl Lagerfeld, Christofle was an artistic laboratory that revolutionised traditional goldsmithing by renewing its uses and adorning it with new colours and decorations. The rich iconography of the exhibition catalogue invites us to discover some of the most remarkable pieces. In doing so, it plunges us into the splendour of great restaurants and palaces such as the Ritz, legendary trains, liners and aircraft such as the Orient-Express, the Normandie and the Concorde, and also places of political power, all equipped by Christofle, ambassador, in France and abroad, of the art of living and luxury à la française. In thirteen thematic essays divided into four chapters, this book traces the extraordinary destiny of the House of Christofle. Sixty-one notes cover the history of the decorative arts as translated into goldsmith's and silversmith's art, from historicism to Japonism, from Art Nouveau to Art Deco, from 1950s design to the most contemporary.