Description
French Baccarat Butterfly Paperweight figure. No damage, double signed on base.<br>3 1/8" wide x 2 7/8" tall.<br><br>Baccarat (French: [bakaʁa]) is a French luxury house and manufacturer of fine<br>crystal located in Baccarat, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France. The company owns two<br>museums: the Musée Baccarat in Baccarat, and the Musée Baccarat in Paris on the<br>Place des États-Unis.<br><br>History<br><br>1764-1816<br>After the closure of the Rozières saltworks in 1760 due to a drop in the<br>salt-content of the water, there became available a large quantity of wood<br>floating down to the town of Baccarat. One of the main owners of the Vosges<br>forest where this driftwood came from, namely Monseigneur de Montmorency-Laval,<br>bishop of Metz, that wanted to find another use for it and set a fire pit in<br>Baccarat which became a glassworks. In this way, the Bishop wanted to encourage<br>the creation of this industry in the tiny village of Baccarat. To justify the<br>creation of this enterprise in a request made to the king in 1764 by the owner<br>of the site, Monseigneur de Montmorency-Laval wrote: "Sire, France lacks<br>artistic glassware, which is why the products from Bohemia enter in such great<br>quantity: from which follows an astonishing export of deniers, at a time when<br>the kingdom would need them so badly”.<br><br>In 1764, King Louis XV of France gave permission to found a glassworks in the<br>town of Baccarat in the Lorraine region in eastern France to Prince Bishop<br>Cardinal Louis-Joseph de Laval-Montmorency (1710-1802). Production consisted of<br>window panes, mirrors and stemware until 1816 when the first crystal oven went<br>into operation. By that time over 3,000 workers were employed at the site.<br><br>1823-1870<br>Although the name of the factory was still "Verrerie" (glassworks), in actual<br>fact it was already specialising in crystal. The technique, however, was not<br>that used for Bohemian Crystal, very well known in Europe and originating in<br>Bohemia, but rather the singular rediscovery of the so-called English technique,<br>worked in an original way at the glassworks of Saint-Louis-lès-Bitche between<br>1779 and 1781.<br><br>In order to maintain initial levels of activity Gabriel d'Artigues was forced to<br>hand over the company to three wealthier partners: Pierre-Antoine<br>Godard-Desmarest, a former director of military supplies under the Empire,<br>François-Marie-Augustin Lescuyer-Vespin, a landowner in Charleville, and<br>Nicolas-Rémy Lolot, a trader in Charleville. The full buy-out of shares was<br>completed for the sum of FF 396,000. It was paid by the three partners in 1822<br>and 1823. Prior to 1823, the wealthy Parisian, Pierre-Antoine Godard-Desmarest<br>had also purchased the glassworks of Trélon in the Thiérache region of northern<br>France. This was a small factory near vast forests producing huge amounts of<br>timber, which until then had been manufacturing pane glass.<br><br>In 1824, the crystal glassworks obtained the legal status of a limited company.<br><br>Godard-Desmarest senior entrusted the management of the company to a young<br>polytechnic engineer, Jean-Baptiste Toussaint. This decision gave rise to two<br>family dynasties, one owning the company's capital, the other managing the<br>business.<br><br>Baccarat received its first royal commission in 1823 from King Louis XVIII. This<br>was the beginning of a lengthy series of orders from royal families and heads of<br>state from all over the world. The factory benefited from an extraordinary boom<br>linked to strong international growth on the luxury market. Additionally, the<br>strategic choice of location made by A.G. d'Artigues proved to be ideal: in the<br>Vosges foothills, from Épinal to Blamont, Rambervillers, Lunéville and Moyen, a<br>whole number of busy earthenware factories would buy back even the smallest<br>amounts of glass-crystal waste to manufacture faience tableware.<br><br>In 1841, the arrival of a thirty-year-old engineer, François-Eugène de Fontenay,<br>already an expert at the Plaine de Walsch factory, whose operations had extended<br>to Vallerysthal, launched the production of coloured glass. This researcher had<br>conducted studies into ways to color glass and now, promoted to assistant<br>director, he developed the first multicolored paperweights made of crystal.[12]<br><br>The range of manufactured products using watermarked glass engraved with a B was<br>a great success in France and on the export market between 1846 and 1895.<br><br>In 1855, Baccarat won its first gold medal, at the World's Fair in Paris.<br><br>In 1860, Baccarat registered its trademark on all its products (at the time this<br>was a simple label stuck onto each piece). The mark was a label affixed to the<br>bottom of the work. In the period 1846-1849 Baccarat signed some of their high<br>quality glass millefiori paperweights with the letter B and the year date in a<br>composite cane.<br><br>Crystal production expanded during this period into luxury crystalware, where<br>Baccarat built a worldwide reputation for producing high quality glass,<br>chandeliers, vases and perfume bottles.<br><br>1870-1936<br><br>Baccarat crystal chandelier and staircase banister, Dolmabahçe Palace<br>The Imperial Era ended in 1870 with the defeat of Napoléon III. Influences<br>outside France began to have a stronger influence on Baccarat's work during this<br>era, particularly imports from Japan. The world's largest chandelier and a<br>staircase lined with a Baccarat crystal balustrade adorn the Dolmabahçe Palace<br>in Istanbul. Strong growth continued in Asia for Baccarat. Baccarat has become<br>quite famous at the royal houses. The queen of Portugal , for example,<br>commissioned for her private collection decorative pieces and tableware<br>(currently exhibited in the Ajuda National Palace).[citation needed]<br><br>In 1891, 4,189 of the 5,723 town inhabitants worked at the crystal glassworks or<br>lived with its employees. The number of workers increased from 1,125 in 1855 to<br>2,223 in 1900, making it one of the largest factories in France.<br><br>At the end of the 19th century, the Baccarat company built a warehouse, a sales<br>store and a bronze workshop in the area of Gare de l'Est in Paris. This<br>warehouse employed some 246 people in 1899. The building became the Baccarat<br>Museum up until 2003.<br><br>One of the strongest products for Baccarat was perfume bottles, and by 1907<br>production was over 4,000 bottles per day. In 1936, Baccarat began marking all<br>of its works via acid or sandblasting.<br><br>1936–2000<br>The company also produced crystal Francisques for Marshal Phillipe Petain[16]<br>and items honouring Pierre Lavalll.<br><br>Gilbert de La Poix de Fréminville (1886-1941), son of Charles de la Poix de<br>Fréminville, was director of the Crystal Glassworks at the outbreak of World War<br>II with his future son-in-law André Danzin.<br><br>Baccarat created an American subsidiary in 1948 in New York City. They started<br>to produce pieces based on Cylon designs, as the famous Cylon Carrier — Napoleon<br>Hat piece (1958).<br><br>In 1994, Baccarat created a gigantic crystal chandelier with 230 lights for its<br>230th anniversary.<br><br>In 1993, in the midst of a crisis undermining the luxury goods market, Baccarat<br>began selling jewellery. In 1997, it extended its activity into perfumery. It is<br>at this same date that a red tassel engraved with the B of Baccarat hallmarked<br>the chandeliers coming from the factory.<br><br>In 2005, the celebrated designer Philippe Starck created a special "black"<br>collection, "Darkside", which included the Zenith chandelier.<br><br>There are American stores in Costa Mesa, California; Houston, Texas; Greenwich,<br>Connecticut; New York City; Palm Desert, California; Las Vegas; and Miami,<br>Florida. A retrospective was held in 1964 at the Louvre Museum to celebrate the<br>200th anniversary of the crystal works. In 1993, Baccarat began making jewellery<br>and in 1997 the company expanded into perfume.<br><br>2000-present<br>In 2003, Baccarat moved to a new location in Paris. In 2014, to celebrate the<br>company’s 250th anniversary, it introduced the scent Baccarat Rouge 540 by<br>Maison Francis Kurkdjian. The company also held an exhibition at the Petit<br>Palais in Paris.<br><br>In 2016, Baccarat appointed Jim Shreve as the president and CEO of North America<br>operations.<br><br>In April 2021, the company appointed Margareth “Maggie” Henriquez, former CEO of<br>Krug Champagne as its chief executive officer.[24]<br><br>In October 2021, Baccarat debuted the 180th anniversary version of its Harcourt<br>glass at Paris Fashion Week 2022 with designs by Victor Weinsanto, Yoshiki,<br>Imane Ayissi, Benjamin Benmoyal, Tom Van der Borght, Clara Daguin, Honey Fucking<br>Dijon, Kevin Germanier, Mira Mikati, and Charles de Vilmorin. The company has<br>also participated in the Cow Parade in New York City which benefitted the<br>charitable organisation God’s Love We Deliver.<br><br>In 2019, actress Tan Zhuo became the first-ever Chinese brand ambassador of<br>Baccarat.<br><br>Baccarat has supported UNICEF by underwriting their annual Snowflake Ball. The<br>company has also participated in the Cow Parade in New York City which<br>benefitted the charitable organisation God’s Love We Deliver, and The Trifecta<br>Gala benefiting several charities and community organisations including the V<br>Foundation for Cancer Research and the West End School. The company also has a<br>partnership with the Virgil Abloh Post Modern Scholarship Fund. Baccarat has<br>also collaborated with The National YoungArts Foundation, a charity established<br>to identify and support high school artists in their educational and<br>professional development.<br><br>Baccarat has also collaborated with The National YoungArts Foundation, a charity<br>established to identify and support high school artists in their educational and<br>professional development.<br><br>Controversies<br>World War II<br>In 1940, The Baccarat factory was occupied by German troops, all Baccarat<br>employees were expelled, and German troops transformed the factory into a P.O.W.<br>transit camp which held 20,000 French prisoners.
