Puiforcat

The French silversmith Puiforcat, founded in 1820, has always known how to bring its centuries-old expertise into dialogue with the aesthetics and spirit of its time. Equally committed to keeping its heritage alive, the house revives several pieces from its archives each year.

Closely associated with the art of sharing and the French art de vivre, Puiforcat places particular emphasis on the culinary arts. This discipline lies at the heart of its collaboration with Spanish designer Tomás Alonso, who has created the Kanmi collection, comprising four glasses and a carafe conceived around the ritual of sake tasting.

Alongside this new silver-plated service, the house is reissuing a selection of tureens, bowls and baskets. Beyond their sometimes similar silhouettes, these pieces share one defining feature: each embodies a specific silversmithing technique, genre or style characteristic of a particular period. A bowl and basket, for instance, immerse us in the neoclassical vocabulary of the Empire style. Although both have been redesigned by Puiforcat’s teams, they have retained their Baroque accents. The former displays a certain restraint, offset by the opulent decoration of its handles and rim. Delicately chased palmettes adorn its body. The latter, designed to hold fruit, is distinguished by handles embellished with two swans’ heads.

Then comes Art Deco, one of the most flourishing periods in the house’s history, represented here by four pieces. Three are bowls. The first was originally designed to be presented as a prize at a sporting competition. Another once graced Manik Bagh, also known as the “Garden of Rubies”, a palace built during the interwar period for the Maharaja of Indore. The third, tubular in form, takes minimalism to an extreme, resting on a wooden cylinder decorated with silver tubes.

To close this chapter, Puiforcat is also reissuing a tureen designed to take centre stage on the dining table, the very embodiment of conviviality. And not just any tureen: designed by Jean Puiforcat in 1937 for the Exposition Internationale, this solid-silver piece combines elegant restraint with a chalcedony crown. There is no question here of nostalgia or dusty historicism. Rather, it is an opportunity to revisit a defining era for Puiforcat, contemporary with the singular architecture of Robert Mallet-Stevens and the innovative furniture of Charlotte Perriand. •

photos : Archive reissues, Puiforcat, Manufacture © Maxime Verret