BY JOHN FITZGERALD
Inside a grey stone Parisian mansion that overlooks a garden square in the fashionable 16th arrondissement, Philippe Starck has designed what may be the most stunning corporate headquarters in Paris.
The 3,000-square-metre mansion -- an intriguing destination for visitors looking to discover some of the city's less obvious attractions -- is the new home base for Baccarat, the venerable French company that makes crystal glassware, jewellery and sundry accessories. It also houses a gallery/museum, boutique, showrooms and a restaurant.
The site of Baccarat's new headquarters has a suitably extravagant past. The mansion was once the setting for enormous and much-talked-about parties during the 1950s and 1960s, thanks to the vigour of its celebrated former owner, a woman with an unerring eye for recognizing talent. Until she passed away in 1970, Marie-Laure de Noailles put her sizable fortune to use patronizing a long list of extraordinary characters. Among them were painters Mondrian and Jean Cocteau, photographer Man Ray and composer Kurt Weill.
Baccarat, which opened the new headquarters last year, traces its origins to the middle of the 18th century, when King Louis XV granted the Bishop of Metz the right to build a glassmaking factory. With Louis XVIII the first to buy, commissions eventually came in from the Japanese emperor, the kings of Morocco and Arabia and others.
By the start of the 19th century, the firm kept a separate furnace going full-time in order to produce crystal ordered by the Russian court.
In a bid to stay modern and further solidify its reputation for glamour, the company gave Starck, the internationally known designer with a warm spot for whimsy, carte blanche in what he did with its new premises.
Starck didn't disappoint, creating, in his words, a spectacular "glass palace where everything is possible."
Visitors entering the mansion pass twin fireplaces on opposite sides of the hallway that are completely faced in mirrors.
In a ground-floor boutique, severe concrete walls contrast with mirror-and-crystal display windows, and dozens of pieces from Baccarat's line of home furnishings accessories sit atop a 13-metre-long table with a crystal base.
Elsewhere, a deep red carpet, edged with tiny lights, leads the way to a chaise 2.5 metres high that has been crafted with crystal legs.
The chair is positioned adjacent to an elaborate spiral staircase that, in de Noailles's day, was often crowded with guests pausing to chat as they proceeded to the mansion's upper floor.
A magnificent chandelier made by Baccarat craftsmen hangs from the ceiling over the staircase and reinforces the tone of fantasy and elegance.
De Noailles's famous ballroom, which she had decorated in the style of an 18th-century Italian palazzo with mirrored panels and painted ceiling, has been left intact and is used for temporary exhibitions and special events.
In the gallery/museum, various showcases highlight some of the magnificent special commissions, including sets of glasses, vases and other objects that Baccarat has fashioned over the years for a select group of clients.
A section called Folie des Grandeurs, for example, displays massive candelabras that were made for the ill-fated Czar Nicholas II and his Czarina, as well as intricate crystal tables and chairs ordered by spendthrift maharajas. The delicate furniture was carried on the backs of elephants once it reached the Indian subcontinent.
Another part of the museum is known as Alchemy, and is designed by the painter and Starck collaborator Gérard Garouste. A pair of engraved vases, entitled Water Allegory and Earth Allegory, gleam inside glass cases beneath Garouste's stunning fresco. The fresco, with its range of extraordinary blues, represents the painter's interpretation of water, earth, air and fire, essential elements to crystal making and to life.
Four thematic display cases, labelled Tales from Afar, Designers, Celebrities and Femininity and Lightness, bring together objects that highlight the skill of Baccarat artisans and craftsmen, from cutters to enamellers and gilders.
Among the items are a Turkish enameled mocha coffee set displayed at the Universal Exhibition (precursor to today's World's Fair) in Paris in 1878 and an elephant vase, dating from the 1880s.
In space once used by de Noailles as her dining room, the Cristal Room Baccarat restaurant has been designed by Starck with walls of plain brick set in wood panelling and gilt, and banquettes that are upholstered in rich pink fabric.
Not surprisingly, place settings glow with Baccarat candlesticks and glasses