TEMPUS Magazine redefines time, giving you a glimpse into all things sophisticated, compelling, vibrant, with its pages reflecting the style, luxury and beauty of the world in which we live. A quarterly publication for private aviation enthusiasts.
Issue link: http://tempus-magazine.epubxp.com/i/156069
W patents he developed for unique silver and gold plating techniques that were less time-consuming and less toxic, and disillusioned by competition from counterfeiters, he began trademarking the style of his silver plating, which was superior to his competitors. Finally Charles Christofe decided to launch the production of his own line of products, because the plating business was not as successful as he had originally anticipated. WHEN KING LOUIS-PHILIPPE called upon the company to produce table service for the entire House of Orléans and Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, who later became Emperor Napoleon III, commissioned him as well, the Christofe name was frmly secured as "Emperor's Provider" and "Silversmith to the King." International expansion was under way, and the elegantly crafted wares appeared on the tables of the royal households of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires as well as the tsar of Russia. With an uncanny ability to look into the future of merchandising, Christofe enabled merchants worldwide to display his spectacular table-service wares in their windows—but only if they carried his line exclusively. The company was innovative in the production methods it developed, including the perfection of electroforming, a revolutionary process that made it possible to reproduce any object identically as many times as desired, and galvanizing (plating not only silver and gold, but bronze, copper, and other metals), which allowed the company to take on large-scale projects such as the massive gold-plated bronze-winged statues named Poetry and Harmony atop the roof of the Opéra Garnier in Paris—the famous opera house credited with inspiring The Phantom of the Opera. The company weathered twin storms of the declining royal families of Europe after World War I and the Depression, but with Christofe relatives inheriting the business and a fortuitous marriage, it survived and achieved a new client base with prosperity following World War II. New commissions included grand hotels, ocean liners, airlines, and trains, among them the famed railway service the Orient Express, the superlative Ritz Hotel, and the luxury ship Normandie, for which the company created a 45,000-piece table service. Traversing all artistic movements through the decades from naturalism to the sensuously curved lines of art nouveau, to the precise sharp angles 4 4 Tempus-Magazine.com . Fall 2013 DESIGN Christofle workers making souvenir spoons at the Universal Exhibition of Paris in 1900. of art deco, to the exotic Eastern infuences of Orientalism, Christofe remained a viable and fourishing force in the decorative arts. Today, collaborations with all types of artists and creators from around the world allow the company to remain contemporary. Architecturally infuenced vases from Karim Rashid, streamlined silver jewelry from Andrée Putman, foral-patterned fatware from Marcel Wanders, and geometric candelabras from Ora-Ito are but a few examples of how the company stays relevant, while evolving styles, tastes, and traditions. The ateliers are located in the small village of Yainville, in the countryside of Normandy. Here at the Haute Orfèvrerie workshops, master silversmiths produce just 110 pieces a year. With equal parts old-world tradition and ultramodern techniques, handcrafting the goods remains a timeconsuming process, with some pieces taking as long as 175 hours to produce. From time to time the company "re-edits" pieces from the past, intro-