In a second story drawing room high above the illustrious plaza of the Place Vendome, a museum of remarkable human experience unfolds amist decor reflecting all the opulence of a past French tradition. For over two hundred years, the House of Chaumet has borne witness to some of the most colourful events in France's history. It was here in the oldest salon in the Place Vendome, under the fanciful canopy of a ceiling fresco, that Napoleon III proposed to Eugenie de Montijo.

In less fortuitous circumstances the young Polish countess, Delphine Potoka watched as her dear friend Frederic Chopin took his dying breath to the strains of Mozart's Requiem playing solemnly at the foot of his bed. But the former Hotel Baudert de Saint James also houses a museum more priceless than any historical anecode - the Musee de Maison.

Chaumet accommodates two hundred years of history in Haute-Joaillerie.

"To create is also to interpret the style of the times. This is precisely the spirit of Chaumet-to be in tune with the times. In this spirit, there is the need to return to the essential,a drive to discover a personal truth.Jewelry is no longer simply a recognizable symbol,it is also an expression of inner truth. Style is more simple,more elegant and at the same time more personal.Inner harmony is reflected in the purity of form.

It is to have the freedom to dare while knowing how to evoke beauty.It is to catch the eye,and bring dreams to life.It is to let jewelry capture the imagination."-

Pierre Haquet

Since 1780, the House of Chaumet has conceived and executed jewellery pieces for the highest courts of Europe and beyond. The Chaumet museum and archives houses sketches and exact replicas to the last diamond and fine pearl of the most exquisite parures, crowns and decorative pieces ever created. They serve as a permanent record of opulent design and in a more practical sense, were held in reserve should the dazzling ruby and diamond parure of Napoleon I's wife, the Arch-Duchess of Austria, be held to ransom.

It was to Chaumet, that Queen Victoria sent drawings in her own hand of designs that the Chaumet craftsmen would execute to her most stringent directive, and it was the imagination and design of Chaumet that the Maharajah of Kapurtala commissioned to create a magnificent dress sword of diamonds and rubies in 1900. Today, a Chaumet client can commission any design from this sparking collection of two centuries of jewellery art should they desire a tangible link to past glory.

The Chaumet tradition of Haunte-Joaillerie began with Etienne Nitot in 1780 on the Rue St. Honore who was accorded the privilege of creating the consular sword set with the Crown Jewel of France - the 140 karat Regent diamond. Upon his death, Nitot's son sold the business to the shop foreman, Fossin, creating a tradition that endures today where a relinquishing shop foreman will not leave his post until his successor has been named and sufficiently inaugurated into his duties. Fossin maintained the imperial ties as jeweller to the Royal Family under Louis-Phillipe, but it was his son Jules who broke with the trend and created a theme of naturalism in his pieces; presenting leaves, flora and branches of gold, platinum and priceless gems whilst continuing to pay reverence to the prevailing aesthetic. This motif continues to mark the Chaumet collections to the present day and the 'Renaissance' collection bids considerable homage to natural bounty and harmony.

"A jewel creates its own history,and even lodges within the pages of history itself. A gift of jewelry is a celebration of joy mixed with tenderness, an affair of the heart.Jewelry is a symbolic representation of the most beautiful of words. It is a matter of style that reflects the spirit of the times-jewels recount the most important moments in a woman's life.They evoke the happiness of an evening, the passion of a summer...they speak of yesterday, of tomorrow and, most of all, of today".

Pierre Haquet

Prosper Morel took the reigns of Chaumet in 1862, to be succeded by his son-in-law Chaumet, the man responsible for its present day incarnation, moving the premises to 12 Place Vendome. It was Joseph Chaumet who challenged prevailing ideas of bulky, overly-decorative ornaments, transforming artistic interpretation into reality as he married purity of design with the singularly powerful hues of the stones. Joseph Chaumet refined the art of jewellery bestowing upon his pieces a sincerity previously overshadowed by complex forms. He instituted another of the rigorously observed Chaumet traditions which demands that from conception of an idea to the final polishing, all work must be performed in the Chaumet workshops on the Place Vendome. Joseph Chaumet, supported by his succeeding generations, Marcel, and later Jacques and Pierre, also affected many technical innovations and procedures in addition to his revolutions in design, showcasing the naturalist element of the creative conception in pieces that had benefitted enormously from improvements in the crafting technique.

After undergoing a 'Renaissance' in 1989 reflected in the revamped design of the premises and in the naming of their new collection of Haute-Joaillerie under the auspices of ex-Comite Colbert MD Jean Bergeron, since April 1993 Pierre Haquet, ex-Managing Director of Cartier International for over ten years has been charged with the task of securing the future direction of Chaumet by owner's Investcorp .

"Luxury lives-jewels are alive! Thy speak -they put spirit in our step. At Chaumet, our jewelers find the expression for our jewelry within culture itself. Luxury and culture are intrinsically entwined. And ,like culture itself, luxury bears witness to its time".-

Pierre Haquet.

It is the artist's mark however, of this beautiful organisation in which lies the difference. Whilst other companies commonly undergo efficacious upheavals and do not weather well the tides of commercial fortune, Chaumet gracefully experiences a 'renaissance'. When you are fortunate enough to be sitting beside the lavish velvet-draped desks admiring these pieces of wearable art, it is only then that you realize that the beauty of French traditon never waned, it merely awaited the renaissance of Chaumet.