Jacques Charles,

Jacques Charles was born in 1926. The grandson of Ernest Charles, who founded the maison Charles in 1908, he was the son of Émile-Albert and Jean’s elder brother. He studied at the École des Arts Appliqués, specialising in interior architecture, a discipline that brought him into the more contemporary sphere of decorative design.

In 1959, he joined the family business alongside Jean, joining their father, Émile-Albert, at the maison Charles. The brothers’ arrival marked the beginning of the “Charles style”: the maison moved beyond reproducing antique lighting to develop its own signed designs. Their different training gave rise to two complementary visual languages. Jean favoured figurative and botanical forms; Jacques, geometric and architectural lines.

In the 1960s, Jacques introduced stainless steel into the maison’s vocabulary, until then dominated by bronze, and led the development of the Inox collection. He designed Orgues in 1965. During the 1970s, the collection expanded to include pieces such as Tambour, Trèfle, Tonneau, Cymbium, Strombus, Étoile and Manta.

Jacques died in November 1972, one year after Jean. Their father, Émile-Albert, died in November 1973.