In the realm of handcrafted luxury goods, the savoirfaire of French artisans is globally revered. Yet in recent years, the perenniality of French craftsmanship has been threatened by retirements and outsourcing of workshops, a situation that has seen titans like LVMH and Cartier scrambling to create their own seedbed schools to preserve their pool of skilled artisans. Meanwhile, one sector has endured and evolved much as it always has – ébénisterie, the art of fine French cabinetmaking. For centuries, the profession has been rooted in the same Right Bank Parisian neighbourhood, an area known as the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. Today, it’s a sanctuary not only for the greatest masters of classical French cabinetmaking styles, but for a new generation imagining the furniture of tomorrow. To appreciate the Faubourg’s role in the flourishing of French cabinetmaking, one need simply tour the jaw-dropping creations throughout the Palace of Versailles, from Marie-Antoinette’s standing jewel coffer (a marvel of wood veneering in amaranth, sycamore, and tulipwood) to Louis XV’s cylinder bureau (a paragon of artistry which took nearly a decade to craft). The remarkable technical ingenuity behind such works is a reflection of the extraordinary freedoms their creators enjoyed in the 18th century simply because they worked in Faubourg Saint-Antoine, then a small agglomeration just outside the city walls on the estate of the Saint- Antoine-des-Champs abbey. For in 1657, the abbey negotiated a special exemption from the king for all artisans working on its lands, freeing them from the stifling control of the Parisian craft guilds, which since the Middle Ages had taxed artisans and dictated how and with what materials they could practise their craft. In the words of historian Jacques Hillairet, that precious dispensation “allowed the cabinetmakers of Faubourg Saint Antoine to embrace their creativity, to be inspired by furniture styles from China, to create furniture with exotic Left: inside Bernard Mauffret’s workshop Opposite, from top: Pierre Strack, co-founder of Straure, poses with pieces in progress; a selection of tables and chairs by Ludovic Avenel island woods, tortoiseshell inlays, ornamentation with brass filets, and veneers in walnut, cedar and ebony”. In their freedom and capacity for innovation, the Faubourg cabinetmakers would translate the rage for antiquity that followed the discoveries at Pompeii into the neoclassical Louis XV and XVI styles, and the Egyptomania that followed Napoleon’s campaign to Cairo into the French Empire style. By the 19th century, the neighbourhood was the country’s biggest furniture-manufacturing centre. For the graduates of France’s premier school of arts and crafts – École Boulle, founded in the Faubourg in 1886 in honour 76 CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM
of Louis XIV’s grand master of marquetry André-Charles Boulle – the neighbourhood offered infinite opportunities. But since the late 20th century, soaring rents and the rise of industrial manufacturers abroad have seen the largest workshops shuttered, ending the era of mass production here. For the torchbearers of the Faubourg’s cabinetmaking tradition, be their passion for classical or contemporary styles, only one path forward remains today – that of excellence. In the Cour de l’Ours, a cobblestoned cul-de-sac dating back to the Middle Ages, Pierre Strack and Philippe Faure founded the atelier Straure in 1984. Convinced that “the higher you rise in the pyramid of technique, the more work you will have”, they set out to distinguish themselves through an encyclopaedic mastery of the styles that won the Faubourg fame. Sure enough, with rare skillsets gained studying with old masters and at École Boulle, they soon attracted a global clientele. Collectors in Germany, Switzerland and London send Straure Art Deco or Louis XVI-era CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM 77
