Vive interviews the brothers Albert & Henri Bouilhet in their opulent showroom on Paris' Rue Royale...

Vive: Can you tell us a little about the Christofle ancestry

Albert Bouilhet: My ancestors were two jewellers, Charles Christofle and Joseph

Bouilhet, and they were brothers-in-law. They, in turn, were lucky to have

met the Count of Ruolz, one of the real characters of the 19th centruy who

was extraordinarily multi-faceted. He was a chemist, a writer and a musician.

He came to see the two men and told them about a patent he held for a

process known as electroplating and the two men had enough intuition to

realise what he was bringing to them was a fantastic invention. They

immediatedly brough the patent and from simple jewellers, they became

indutrialists within 10 years, heading a factory that employed over 1,000

people. We were lucky too at that time to be under Napoleon III, a very

wealthy Emporer - France was a rich country at that time, and add to this

the fact that Napoleon had a complex about his uncle, Napoleon I - he wanted

to have a grander court life than his relative ! When he discovered that

through this Christofle invention he could buy silverware at one

fifth of the price that existed for sterling silverware, he placed extraordinary

orders with them. He was very hospitable and all the Kings of Europe dined

at his table.. They in turn, discovered the sort of table setting Napoleon

had and where he had found it, and the consequently ordered more from the

company. And that's what is extraordinary about Christofle - from the

1850's , we were already international.

Vive: What sort of man was your great uncle Charles Christofle

Bouilhet: He was an unbelievable person: one of those very inventive

individuals. At the same time he was developing this industry, he was also

breeding cattle in Argentina, and since there was no aeroplanes, it took

months to travel between France and Argentina. He was head of a factory,

managing his money and investing in such a risky business as cattle in

Argentina.

Charles Christofle had no descendants while Bouilhet did, and that is a major

difference! He got married, had one son who did nothing with it.

My great grandfather was an engineer and made many innovations in this

industry .He invented something which gave Christofle great diversification,

the technique of 'Galvanoplastic'. This allows one to coat almost any

surface to make it suitable for electroplating. Therefore, we built up the

Statuary industry, a new industry. Architects were happy to find in

Christofle, manufacturers who could supply them with statues which instead of

being cast in bronze were made of a thin coat of copper using the

Electroplating technique Christofle had available. That is why today many

of the statues around Paris were actually made by Christofle, because they

were very light and could be placed on top of many buildings, like the Opera

for example.

Vive: What about your grandfather, what sort of man was he.

Bouilhet: He was an artist and a playboy - he adored women. I don't think

he played a major role in the development of Christofle during his time,

but I believe he was a very happy man, and lived more in the casino than in

his office. Fortunately he had my father when he was very young, who turned out to

be a very good businessman, and with a good feeling for public relations.

This is why during my fathers' time there was such a large scale development

of the company. He was well known by all the big designers of his time, the

great artists like Matisse, and he asked a lot of them to work for Christofle.

That is still one of the features of Christofle- we have alwasys been able

to be in close contact with the artists of the time. But not just any artist,

the big names like Cocteau, Dali,.. it is also true of our generation, my

brother Henri for instance is an architect and has been working with me for

ten years. He did the interiors of the Pompidou Museum, and he became

acquainted with all the major artists of the period through his work.

Vive: He long have you been involved in the family business and how do you

see the company as having evolved to the present time.

Bouilhet: I was born, as the English say, with a silver spoon in my mouth. I

have now been running with this company for the past thirty-five years, and

I am the fifth generation at the head of the company. My father handed me

over the business when I was rather young, only about thirty years old and

today the company is worldwide in the field of silverware. That is very

significant when you realise the traditional stronghold of Great Britain in

this industry. Coming as you do from Australia, and being very much under

the British influence you must realise that for us in the silversmith

world, up to the Second World War when you mentioned the word silverware

everyone thought of a British Product.

However, there was a lack of imagination and creativity from the British in

the last 25 years or so - they were constantly reproducing the same

tradition of English design. This ultimately made room for us, and now I

can very humbly say that we have completely overtaken the British Silverware

industry.

Vive: How did this situation occur?

Bouilhet: It's a long story but briefly, the silverware industry in Britain

was controlled by a very old family-owned company. They were not however,

doing much business, and certainly made little profit. They had been

established in the middle of the city of Birmingham for a hundred or so

years, when one man Charles Clore - who was a real estate genius, decided in

1960 he could buy the company's properties. But instead of merging all the

separate entities and making something very strong, he sold the real estate.

This meant that overnight Britain had no silverware industry. We had been

following this closely . Clore was of Italian descent and came to Britain

after the war, and after selling ice-cream from a van he went on to make a

fortune in real estate. He was knighted before his death.

For us it is an achievement to be tha largest exporter of silverware in the

wolrd. There are bigger companies than Christofle in the world - in Germany

and America, but with our fame and distribution around the world

there is nobody.

Vive: In the past what would you consider to have been the fundamental

difference between French and English silverware?

Bouilhet: I think what made the difference was creativity. As far as design

is concerned we have been much more creative than the British, and this is

what established our reputation around the world, because we were coming out

with new designs. We did not try to repeat patterns. The 'Kings" pattern

for instance has been around for hundreds of years now, never changing.

Each generation of Christofle had tried to work closely with the designs of

our times: We try to be advanced

compared with what the consumers are using today. This didn't mean that we

were successful commercially in every generation because people when they

buy silver don't want to buy contemporary designs, because silver is so much

considered as an element of glamour and an image of heritage. You pass on

the family silver from one generation to another, therefore timelessness is

imporant. So what is more timeless than design of the past. This may

restrict us somewhat but even knowing that , we always try to produce something

very striking and new.

Vive: As a young twenty-two year old, it must have been an eye-opening

experience to leave Europe for America, particularly at that period..

Bouilhet: It was fantastic! My father gave me a return ticket, two hundred

dollars and an address in the States. He told me that if I couldn't find a

job then I had the ticket home .So I arrived in New York with a list of

very elegant people to meet. With all my money in my pocket I though I was

so wealthy because I never had so much money at one time before! But one

week later my money was almost gone so I called up the last guy I had on the

list and told him I adored his country and didn't want to go home just yet,

and could he do something for me. He told me to go the the Grand Central

Station and catch a train to where he would be waiting for me. I ended up

staying one year with this man.. He was Vice-President of what was then the

biggest silverware company in America, The International Silver Co. in

Connecticut. That same day, I moved into his house and than I transferred a

little latter into the YMCA.

Vive: How do you think these very different experiences helped you in your

own business?

Bouilhet: I think the philosophy hehind sending me there was to help me gain

some understanding of other cultures. You can't gain that sort of experience in

your own company -

it's psychologically more difficult. I was a hard worker: polishing trucks,

polishing pieces, assembling pieces .You can't do this in your own factory

with the guy next to you knowing you are the son of the boss. I think I

learned more in those two years than I would have learned at any university

in the world.

Vive: What specifically do you feel that you learned during this time?

Bouilhet: We are talking about 1950 - a time when Europe had been completely

destroyed by World War II, whilst America was largely untouched. Walking

into the company in America was like walking on the moon because there was mass

production there which we didn't have in Europe - we had been doing

everything by hand - so I learned these new methods, which kinds of

equipment were used and how, I took copious amounts of notes that year. I

guess I was spying but of course they knew who I was - Americans are very

generous people! Of course Christofle was not a major competitor for the

Americans and they were not export minded at that time anyway so for them

Europe really was miles away.

If I had been there explicity as the son of a competitor, then it may have

been different. But me, a little French boy, all they asked me was how

Brigitte Bardot and Charles de Gaulle were!

Vive: How were the French regarded by the Americans at that time?

Bouilhet: To American mothers, the French were a very bad influence: I was

really the man of sin! But I like the Americans very much. In Europe at

that time we were very conservative, very stuffy whilst the Americans were

so easy-going in comparison. It was a country geared toward youth so I

was blooming there!

After one year I returned to Europe, having matured a great deal of course

by this stage. That was when I went to Germany, which was a completely

different world for me. I spent time with WWF. During my early education,

one of our nannies was a German girl and so since the age of five I have been

able to speak German. There I found a world vastly different from that I

had seen in America: I was situated in the Black Forest in a complex

employing 4,000 people at the time, and obviously the German culture is

closer to the French than was the American, but I did the same sort of

training there I had done in the States. I was on the shop floor like

everyone else and spent nine months there.

Interestingly, I discovered a totally different mentality amongst the

workers at the benches than I had found elsewhere - in the States it was all

free enterprise and everyone thought he was going to be the next

Rockefeller. Because there was opportunity for everyone. In Germany, as in

France, people chose a career and believed they were going to be in that

career for life. It was also very unionised in Germany, so I discovered the

world and mentality of unions.

Vive: How big was Christofle at that time?

Bouilhet: As far as the number of people we employed at the time, there were

about 1,400 which is quite similar to today. The difference, of course, is

that thirty years ago with that number of people we were doing a certain

number of pieces and today we do many more.

After Germany I was sent to start a new factory for Christofle in Argentina,

which was a very big challenge as you might imagine. Why Argentina? Well, the

Latin American countries were seen as a huge potential market for all of

Europe, especially after the World Wars, so I left Paris with a foreman and

started a factory from scratch, importing all the machinery as was

needed. This allowed me to put to use all the knowledge I had acquired in

America and Germany. Basically then, my career really started on the

production side, not at all on the sales side and even less so on the

financial side.

Vive: Was it a difficult exercise economically to open up in Argentina?

Bouilhet: No, not at all. Firstly Argentina had not been involved in the war

and was consequently wealthy, and secondly, it needed to develop its own

industries internally and was therefore welcoming investments.

The country was flourishing from its agricultural base, and then from the

petrol discoveries. The problem with Argentina is that despite their wealth,

they are like spoilt children and so are constantly becoming embroiled in

political turmoil. Instead of using the richness God has given to their

land they have largely destroyed their economy.

I kept flying over Brazil en route to Argentina, and one day, I realised

that the action had shifted to Brazil! So I finally decided, just fifteen years

ago, to open up in Brazil as well - keeping Argentina too of course, but

mainly producing cutlery and basic silverware. In Brazil, we encountered a

lot of problems early on, but today, it is one of the most profitable of

all our subsidiaries. Do you know that in 1989 the inflation rate was

1,000% This naturally turns everything on its ear and we have been obliged

to close the factory for two days a week. But then again, so has every one else.

Vive: How would you summarise the early days of your career, given all this

remarkable input?

Bouilhet: The beginning of my career was very technical and practical, but

then I was able to return to France and could take over as someone who had

actually been intimately involved in the industry. This then allowed me to

be able to speak to our people about the changes I saw as necessary and this

transformed our industrial approach completely. We were able to produce

quickly and at a competitive price which was one of the main operative

factors in our post-war success. Seven year after I returned, my father

handed over the business to me.I was helped by a good management team who

understood that the development of Christofle had to be focussed abroad so

we immediately began rebuilding the international structure we had at the

start of the century.

Vive: Today however, Christofle's range does not appear to be as broad as it

once was.

Bouilhet: Well, we no longer produce statues What we have done is that we

have gone from the very big pieces to very small ones.

Vive: What are some of the more unusual pieces that you have created in the

last few years?

Bouilhet: One of the most difficult, or at least, the most challenging

things is working with the contemporary artist because they tend to want to

do things which are striking, very different and very innovative. We tried

to work with the late Salvador Dali for instance, but it did not work out.

As you know, Dali was a very eccentric man, and though we worked with him

for a long time, nothing came of it. He was on stage when he talked to

people - he couldn't even simply ask his doorman for the key, he wood make a

show of the procedure and challenge the man saying: "Well of course you are

going to give me the key!"

At the time, Dali was surrounded by two people who looked after him. One of

course was his wife, Gala, the other was a certain Major Thompson who acted

as his secretary. Maybe the title was a Dali invention since the man was

English. At the time he was doing his 'Melting Watch' series and he wanted

us to design flatware that would look like one of those watches. It was an

amusing concept but absolutely unsaleable. So we never had a contract with him.

Artists can be very frustrating to work with. Often they are impossible.

There was one friend of my brother, Cesar, the artist who never did anything

with us because he simply never got around to it!

Vive: How do you find your industrial designers?

Bouilhet: We have our own teams headed by my brother. In this way most of

the designs we produce are either from my brother or from those under his

responsibility. We have about 6 designers who do nothing else all day but

design, jewellery, china and so on. We started on China last year in

conjunction with Limoges.

Vive: What is your current role with the company?

Bouilhet: Well I have my two brothers working with me. One who is the

architect and is responsible for design and brand image, then our much

younger brother - eighteen years my junior actually - who has been through a

very good Business School. After his schooling and his PhD he went on to be

a Marketing Professor and some time later, put to practice what he had been

teaching the others working a separate business for some time until I asked

him to join us. He worked on an idea for an electrical device which when

strapped onto the body allows people to slim without any problems. He made a

fortune in this business! I then told him that Christofle was our blood and

I needed him to come and join us, which he did initially as a Marketing

Manager. Recently he has become Vice President in Charge of Sales and

Marketing.

I need to be sure that the future of the company will be in good hands for

the next generation.

Vive: How is the next generation of Bouihets shaping up to take over the reigns?

Bouilhet: I have four daughters, ranging from ten to twenty-six . The two eldest

don't want to be involved with the business, the third is not sure what she

wants to do yet and then my brothers have their own children too!

Vive: What are some of the most remarkable experiences that your business

and position have afforded you?

Bouilhet: I have always been obsessed by something we produced last century

in fact, an incredible bed in sterling silver weighing 323 kilos, with a

life size statue of a naked lady at each corner! This was created in 1862

when there was no electrical current, but the ladies had articulated arms so

they could fan the owner as he lay on the bed. And in the mattress was a

music box that would play for twently minutes, enough for the bed's owner to

fall asleep. We knew everything about the bed, right down to the music

played, who put the wigs on the statues, who made the mechanics so that the

eyes of the statues blinked as the owner lay down but we didn't know the

name of the customer because it was cancelled on all the documents.

Then about five years ago I decided with my wife to tour all the Maharajas

courts in India, because I knew the bed was somewhere in that area. After

touring extensively all the courts and showing pictures of the bed to

hundreds of people to no avail, I was finally able to trace the crest on the

bed head through the libraries and discovered that we had to search in

Pakistan! I wired our embassy in Pakistan and told them the story and six

months later, they faxed me to say that they had gone to this remote palace

in the middle of nowhere - twice the size of Versailles, but sealed up by

the government of the then President . I'd give anything to find this bed!

Vive: So what is the future for Christofle?

Bouilhet: Expansion. We may also go into crystal, and holloware and expand the

retail side of the business. We already have 40 Pavillons Christofle but should have 120 or

more by the end of the century. This is the only way to really control your

marketing and brand image. When you are dependent on others for retail,

especially with department stores, it is often difficult to be able to

handle luxury goods properly. Why? Because luxury goods need very good

staff, and in a department store the person selling shoes today may be

selling jewellery tomorrow. We try at least, to show the consumer what the

world of Christofle truly is.

HENRI BOUILHET

Henri Bouilhet took an indirect route in working with his family at

Christofle. Indeed it was some years before his professional path veered

away from his chosen career to lead exclusively to Christofle's front door.

"Architecture seemed logical to me because in each generation since Charles

Christofle, there has always been someone in the family with an interest in

art." He says. Although having participated in the operation of Christofle

for twenty years, Henri was still a practicing architect, numbering amongst

his achievements, the remarkable Centre Pompidou on whose interior

architecture he worked with Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers.

Henri has also designed the new Christofle factory, a project on which he

worked bery closely with his brother because "for us, to build a new

factory, implies a new direction, a new view for Christofle. We wanted to

implement the new developments and technologies that had been made available

over the last 100 years in a very pleasant work environment where we now

produce the best products." Having decided he wished to pursue the cultural

arts with a more direct application, Henri joined brothers Albert who "has a

more general over view of the operation of Christofle encompassing the

industrial and the commercial: he has the hands-on experience. He is the

only one in the family who can take a piece of metal and change it into a

spoon or a fork," and youngest brother Mark who heads the commercial and

marketing side of the business, as chief designer. An ardent painter in his

spare time, Henri is very content with his decision to embrace the family

business: "I must say that I am very happy that I did because it makes a

strong team - three brothers with the same blood from the same mould working

in the same way!

Vive: Let's talk a little about the Bouilhet family.

Henri: My mother is well over eighty now and she was in charge of part of

the company whilst my father was still there. She was in charge of all the

Pavillons Christofle. She was a real businesswoman although she was not at

all educated for it. He died 12 years ago and they were very, very close.

She entered the business during the War as my father was involved in the war

effort. When the war was over, she was so interested in working that she

continued to do so. She retired when she was about sixty and now spends a

good deal of her time in Venice, she loves it there, being Italian. But she

still keeps a close eye on the business.

My parents met in Paris in interesting circumstances. My father met a young

architect named Gio Ponti, and he was so fascinated with his work that he

asked Ponti to build his house for him outside Paris. Ponti had designed the

Pirelli building in Milan and founded the Italian architecural magazine

Domus in 1925. He was also a great inspiration to me to become an architect.

When the house was completed, Ponti asked his new friend if he would mind

taking care of his niece for him as she was coming to Paris soon. He took

care of her so well, he married her. And now here we are, five children!

Vive: One of the most fascinating things about the Bouilhet heritage is its

Italo-Franco origins. This must be a big advantage in that the two leading

design centres in the world are France and Italy and your family is a

combination of both. Do you think that it provides a balance in both

attitude towards design and in the design itself?

Henri: I think that one of the advantages of the French is that they are

rationalist. Like our philosopher Descartes - everything goes from one point

logically to another and another and another .So then when we have done

this, we think we are right. But then, when you speak with the Italian

people you discover that you are not right at all! Italians can go on

without government, without law, without paying tax - the expression in Italy

is tutto fa brodo - everything goes into the soup and it makes very good

soup! It is of course, very different to the French mentality. The Italians

are real artists, and French people are not artists. French people have the

sense of quality, of dignity, of what must be done and how it has to be

done. They are perfectly at home with style: they have the castle on one

side and the beautifully landscaped gardens on the other. The Italians

meanwhile, work in a Baroque way - absolutely different. They generate

fantasy and permit themselves everything. If you see the modern design of

the French people it is very rational, very clean: the Italians go in all

directions and when you do so, you find the very best and, the very worst.

Everyone is an artist in Italy: they like to sing in the streets, they love

to indulge in colour, in fragrance, they love to touch they are a very

sensual Latin people.

Vive: As an architect, how then do you define the comparative architectures

of contemporary France and Italy?

Henri: I would not say that there is a contrast as such between the two. You

find in architecture as you find in all the pieces within a house, there is

no difference within a certain class of people. Architects like Jean Nouvel,

Piano or Mario Botta, think and work in the same way no matter where they

are. It is an international architecture. Whether Botta works in

Switzerland, Germany or Rio, it is always, simply a Botta product. When

Picasso was doing a drawing, he never thought that it was expressly going to

be sold in Japan and adjusted his work for that culture. All artists,

architects, companies like Christofle who wish to manufacture artistic

pieces, they do what they want to do and then sell it all over the world.

Vive: What have been some of your own inspirations that are perhaps now

evident in the Christofle product?

Henri: The inspiration is very strong in the fact that when I began to work

with this imprint of the Bauhaus in my mind, there was only one way to go

the way of the modernists. If you took a teapot, then you wanted to create

the perfect teapot, to hold so much liquid, to have a good handle, a good

spout and when all that was done, then you would produce it. That was form

following "function." Now we have discovered that this is not enough. You

can become extremely bored and therefore there was a move towards fantasy

all over the world. It is always the same thing, we go from rationalist to

baroque then back again!

Vive: Perhaps the most functional has no depth, no interest, in the way that

a computer can design something that is absolutely, entirely functional but

it lacks any personality.

Henri: One must always think of the functional aspect of a product. If we do

a fork or a spoon or anything at all really, it must be functional for its

purpose - it must work, it must be a tool. But our job is to sell a tool

that makes you dream. So, we sell much more than just a utilitarian item. We

sell our culture, our heritage, our feelings of today's interpretation of

the product and in doing this we have applied the artist's mind. The view of

artists at this moment of specialised products.

Vive: Do you have a team of specialised designers to help you facilitiate

this creative process?

Herni: We have a team of designers and this team is divided into different

sections: We have one dedicated to tableware, another who is dedicated to

designing everything apart from the table; the frames, the object d'arts

that are not connected with food. Another deals exclusively with the

jewellery and the last designs china and crystal.

All these people have contact with outside designers to whom they explain

the Christofle style and with who they discuss new ideas. But this creative

process, is a very time consuming exercise requiring years of development

before we even think about the promotion.

Vive: How does an architect like yourself go about designing cutlery? What

is your first point of reference?

Henri: It is difficult to answer the question concisely because it is a very

big responsibility. I know from all the questions that we ask people who

purchase Christofle, the cutlery is a very big concern. The knife is the

most important beginning because the knife years ago was the first implement

that people used when they sat at the table. Hunters used to keep the knife

in their pockets, stalk their prey and use the knife to cut and to eat with.

It predates the fork by many years and it has always been important to our

mentality. When you design a new knife, you always think about its use, how

it balances in your hand, it must cut properly, it also has to be an

attractive product because one must feel good about how it looks on one's

table and it must feel good when you pick it up .There is no perfect design

in a knife: it is a matter of taste, it must in totality be pleasing to you.

Vive: How do you perceive the differences in Christofle from when you

yourself began twenty years ago to today?

Henri: I feel that the most important one would be that the company has

passed from a business which was mostly oriented towards the manufacturing

process and how to make the perfect product, which I feel that we have

achieved in terms of excellence of quality - to today, where we are oriented

towards having what might be called a 'signature'. We have already begun to

sell china and today we are gearing towards "The World of

Christofle". First of all, of course, to sell the 'Christofle Table' but in

the future, I hope that we can sell everything we can think of to make under

the name of 'Christofle'. This does not mean ties, or shirts, but when one

thinks of a watch, or a picture frame, or a pen, one should think of

Christofle. But each product must be readily identifiable as Christofle.

Vive: How has the marriage of art and business helped to shape your own

creativity?

Henri: I must say that I have always had a greater affinity with artists

than with businessmen.Businessmen are very interesting people but thin of the

Renaissance, for example. You may remember the extraordinary relationship

between Lorenzo de Medici and Pope Julius II. But the word 'Renaissance',

brings to one's mind only the names of the artists, like Michelangelo,

Donatello and not the names of their sponsors.

In our times, it will probably be the same - the big bankers, the big

business tycoons are very prominent now but when their businesses are no

more or they retire, they quickly fade from memory. The artist of today, as

in previous time documents the happenings, although they may not understand

or want to understand the facts, they are like mediums - they get the

influence of the time and try to translate this to a sculpture, a painting,

a piece of art .I am trying to do the same with our holloware and silverware.

When I think of the time of my father, my grandfather and great-grandfather,

one forgets what the position of the company was in terms of industry

standing, what the bank thought, what one does remember is a particular

piece that my have been created then, the decorative legacy of the time.

Even though it may not look so important, the heart of the company lies in

the pieces I am drawing now, they will endure. I cannot say that they are

better or worse than what came before them but in fact, they are art and by

the sheer virtue of the fact that they exist, I know that they will be in a

museum. What is very strange in art is that there has never been a period in

art history, be it the Roman, the Greek, the Renaissance where nothing has

succeeded and is not remembered today. When you are there, when you are

living it, you feel that nothing is as good as the period before, or the

time when your father and grandfather were working always much more

interesting. We spoke before about the Bauhaus - a very interesting period,

but our period is as interesting as the Bauhaus.

Vive: So many products today are very beautiful, very costly, but they are

not strictly investments as such, because by their nature, they will not

weather the years well. How do you see Christofle in the light of passing

fashion?

Henri: When you buy Christofle, you want to buy something that you can give

to your children. It is not a product that is time-specific of fashion. You

invest a lot of dreams in silver that you don't in a stereo, a T.V. or a car

because when you buy silver, you buy tradition. My father always said that

when you buy Christofle, you buy a grandmother. It means that you don't have

to mind to purchase something that is very contemporary, very fashionable,

you want to buy a piece of tradition, a piece of France.

Vive: In conceiving of new designs, how do you begin to create the products?

Henri: When you begin to draw in terms of design, you don't sketch in the

same way that you begin a painting. You do a lot of sketches and then you

begin to discuss the drawings with the craftsmen with whom you are working.

Changes or alterations are then made. When one is talking about design, you

cannot simply wake up one day, do a sketch and then say, 'Ah, it is

finished.' It is the result of a long, long process of thought, or

repetition of modification, prototypes and then it begins to be finished.

Vive: What do you consider to be some of your most important designs?

Henri: Well, with the Talisman flatware pattern, which is classic yet quite

modern, we began a new concept. Christofle has always tried to put colour on

its silver as silver is very monochrome by nature. You can change the colour

of gold: you can give it a greeny tinge, yellow, red and so on, but silver

you cannot change. This is a very interesting element to work around.

Christofle did an important collection of enamel cloisonne inspired by

pieces from China and Japan. But the enamel cloisonne is a very fragile

material and could not be used on cutlery. After extensive research, we

discovered that we could replace the enamel with Chinese lacquer. It took us

years to develop this technology which all our colleagues the world over

envy as quite a few of them have tried it before and did not succeed.

Chinese lacquer is a very old material which has been used by the Chinese

and the Japanese for the past eight centuries and one advantage of this

material is that it is resistant to almost all kinds of chemical agents

which means that is totally suitable for our time being dishwasher proof.

But going back to your question, if you look at the Talisman pattern, you

cannot say that there is a connection with the Middle Ages or the

Renaissance or the Empire style: it stands on its own. Nobody can say that

it is modern, or interpretation of style: it is something that has been

executed today and it is of our time. Twenty years from now, people will

say: "That was from the Nineties."

Vive: What do you see as the future of Christofle in terms of your own input?

Henri: I love my work very much and know I will be doing this for a long,

long time. But I also like to paint, to draw and to discover new things. I

do not consider myself to be an artist, but I do consider that I can add a

part of art to an industrial product. I think that I do that well and I am

not at all frustrated about not being 'an artist'. When I stop work at

Christofle, I will be very happy to just draw and paint for myself. I don't

have any desire to begin a new artistic movement! But I get very much

pleasure from doing a good painting: I am very happy - but even if I do a

bad painting as well, I am also very happy. Remember how happy Winston

Churchill was when he was painting!