Following an extensive year long refurbishment with magnificent attention to the preservation of history, the Maison Chaumet reopened in Place Vendôme.
[Editors note: The Maison is currently closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic]. We take you on a tour through the building and the charming history of the brand and its homes in the square.
The French house has history that stretches 240 years. Chaumet’s founder Marie-Étienne Nitot was a favourite of Napoléon Bonaparte and his first wife Empress Joséphine appointed Nitot as her official jeweller in 1805. This helped to establish the brand, which is known for its extravagant and elegant tiaras, even til this day.
Following this success, Chaumet was the first jeweller to open in the square at #15 in 1812, opening originally in the building that is now home The Ritz. The Maison is now housed at #12 as of 1907.
The address houses the enlarged retail boutique, historic grand salons (including historical monument the Chopin Salon, pictured below, where composer and pianist composed his last piece), the high jewellery workshop which overlooks the square, allowing its Master Jewellers to draw inspiration from the surrounds.
According to Chaumet, their high jewellery workshop is a secret place where jewellers, gem-setters and polishers work each day to bring Chaumet’s creations to life, thus perpetuating ancestral virtuosity under the attentive eye of the 13th head of the Maison’s workshop.
This precious virtuosity, which can only be reproduced by hand, has been passed on from workshop head to workshop head since the Maison was established in 1780.
View the Chaumet virtual museum.
View Chaumet High Jewellery
Images: Chaumet
by Amanda Johnstone
Haute Today 