La Maison Charles,

Since 1908, the maison Charles has worked in art bronze, carrying forward a savoir-faire passed down through its workshops. Ernest Charles took over the Ullmann bronze workshop at 103 rue de Turenne, in the heart of the Marais, where bronze workers had been practising their craft for generations. He chose to specialise in reproducing antique lighting, an exacting discipline requiring a thorough knowledge of form, alloys and the gestures of the trade.

In the early 1920s, he passed the maison on to his eldest son, Émile-Albert. His younger son, Pierre, joined him in 1932, when the business took the name Charles Frères. Together, they upheld their father’s technical legacy through the Art Deco years, the war and the post-war period. Foundry work, chasing, turning and patination: these crafts were passed on through practice, from piece to piece and hand to hand.

In 1959, Jean and Jacques Charles joined their father, Émile-Albert. Chrystiane also joined the maison that year, marking the beginning of a new creative period. The maison gradually moved away from reproducing antique lighting and began producing its own signed designs, soon known as the “Charles style”. Bronze took the form of pineapples, lotuses and ears of corn. In the 1960s, Jacques brought a sculptural quality to lighting with his Inox series and the Orgues lamp, whose form itself carries the light.

This spirit of invention continues in close dialogue with the workshops. Across generations, artisans have helped shape designs alongside members of the family and guest designers. Master chasers and workshop heads Denis Bolto and Jean-Manuel Freitas have contributed to dozens of creations. Denis Bolto worked with Chrystiane Charles on the development of Ginkgo; Jean-Manuel Freitas designed the Angela chandelier. Their work continues a tradition in which artisanal savoir-faire also plays a part in shaping the designs.

In 1982, architect Laurent Charles joined the maison, bringing a more geometric vocabulary shaped by Art Deco. Charles has also continued to collaborate with designers and interior architects. Whether developed for an outside commission, drawn by a member of the family or conceived through an exchange in the workshop, each design takes shape in close dialogue with the artisans and the crafts of bronze.

Now based just outside Paris, in the former match factory in Aubervilliers, the maison Charles continues to make its pieces in its own workshops. Taken over by the Beaufour-Lévy family in 2019, it carries this history forward, bringing creation, transmission and savoir-faire together. The catalogue bears witness to this collective story: each design carries a part of it.