Puiforcat's historic address, at number 48, is the place to go for a first encounter with the Puiforcat spirit. Transformed in 2023 by the Charlotte Macaux Perelman studio, the space now welcomes visitors in discreet splendour. The first room features a vast table carved from a tree several hundred years old — fallen during the storm of 1999 — whose curves echo those of a silversmith's bench. At the end of its petals are various antechambers, all designed to disprove the idea that "tradition and modernity" is an overused expression.
ART AND ARTISANRY It only takes a few glances to understand the House's aesthetic palette, delicately interplaying a history steeped in the classical style preferred by Louis Victor Puiforcat, the Art Deco style inspired by his son Jean, and lastly some definitively contemporary pieces crafted in collaboration with artists and designers.
KNOW-HOW AND THE TRANSMISSION OF KNOWLEDGE A few days later, we were invited to the Paris region to discover the space chosen by the House to bring together its craftspeople, the inheritors and transmitters of ancestral know-how. In the hammering, flattening, chasing and engraving workshops, artisans perpetuate gestures handed down from generation to generation, using hammers, mallets and templates preserved in matchboxes. At the end of all these stages, the object speaks for itself, standing as a testament to crafts whose prowess paradoxically lies in their invisibility — pieces that could easily be described as masterpieces.
Puiforcat — Silver Vibrancy
48 avenue Gabriel — two hundred years of silversmith expertise
The story of Puiforcat, a French silversmith house whose exceptional skills can be seen at its flagship space on Avenue Gabriel in Paris, is a tale two hundred years in the making — with a powerful modern twist.
By La Rédaction
Photography: Éric Poitevin
