Baccarat: Like An Exquisite Dessert
November 17, 2001 | 12:00am
Who hasn’t dreamed of owning Baccarat crystal? Purveyor to kings and presidents of France since 1764, Baccarat produces full-lead crystals in dinnerware, jewelry, chandeliers, even monumental statues. The excellence and prestige of its crystals are known the world over. Baccarat is more than an international leading luxury brand, it is representative of French art.
We were given a rare opportunity to appreciate Baccarat’s heritage of fine crafstmanship when we visited the Musee de Baccarat on the Rue de Paradis in Paris. The trip was made possible by Air France, which flies non-stop direct to Paris, France three times a week.
It was raining when we went to visit the Baccarat museum, boutique and office. Built in 1630, the building which has retained its original architecture, houses spectacular works of art that Baccarat produced over the centuries. The boutique has also remained unchanged through the centuries – only the contents are new. At the entrance is a vessel on a crystal table circa 1889, but reproduced a hundred years later.
Welcoming the visitors at the museum entrance are the Water and Earth Allegory vases circa 1866. Over a meter high, the red engraved vases are a profusion of details. Also a sight to behold are two candelabras which belonged to Russian Tsar Nicolas II. The candelabras, which are 3.85 meters in length, were ordered by Tsar Nicolas for his palace in St. Petersburg. They were never delivered because of the revolution.
There were more pieces with stories to tell. Michaela Lerch-Moulin, Baccarat museum’s curator, did not know where to begin. We were all full of curiosity and so awed by the sparkling beauties. We can only begin to imagine the care and precision involved in producing each piece.
Our journey to the crystal wonderland began at night. We arrived at 8 p.m. at the quaint station of Baccarat. We were met by Anne Cecile Garnier, junior PR director for Baccarat. We were to spend the night at a chateau owned by the Baccarat empire. Since it was very near the station, it was decided that we should walk. A bit tired from the journey, we trudged along the bumpy rocky road, dragging our luggage.
Our weariness melted when we reached our destination – a 200-something-year-old chateau with 13 gargantuan bedrooms, each elegantly decorated and furnished with crystals. Each room had a different motif. I chose the blue room, which had an adjoining door to the red room, chosen by Mitos Juarez. Our room, though comfortable, was unusually eerie. For added protection and a much-needed boost of courage, I laid my St. Benedict medallion beside my pillow. Maybe I’ve been watching too many scary movies, but the last thing I wanted to see were dead people. In the end, the warm-blooded and very much alive Mitos kept me company that night.
After unpacking, we gathered for dinner at the chateau’s dining room for a full-course French meal with the customary wine selections. Since Mitos had visited the place before, she fueled our fears with more ghost stories which really had nothing to do with the place, but with the crystal chandeliers, century-old clocks and photos of people who once ran the company. Otherwise, the ambience was just perfect. Nevertheless, we all decided to make this trip a one-nighter, instead of the original plan of two nights.
The chateau is connected to the Baccarat museum where some of those precious works from centuries back are on display. Behind the chateau is La Chapelle which houses some of the priced crystal collections and where the colossal 230-light chandelier hangs. About 500 meters away from the chateau and across a tree-lined park is the factory which looks like a church complete with church bell. On each side of the park are flower deck houses for some of the glass blowers.
The production in the factory is round-the-clock so we decided to visit the night-shift. We crossed the tree-lined park as fast as we could, as the night air was chilly. We chanced on the team working on the Louis XVI cognac bottles for Remy Martin. Now that you know, don’t throw away those bottles because they’re Baccarat crystals.
We came across glass blowers working on wine glasses. They were very accommodating and gave us a chance to try our skills at glass-blowing. I went first and hardly made a bubble. Mitos went next and she blew so hard she made two bubbles. Then it was Khryss Adalia’s turn and he made a perfect glass. This was quite unusual considering this technique is difficult to execute. Direk Khryss could easily join the elite team of Baccarat craftsmen and become a glass blower, should he leave show business one day!
The glassmaker turns the blowpipe constantly in order to counterbalance the effect of gravity and spread the batch evenly as it cools down when in comes in contact with the air. When the liquid becomes pasty, the glassblower loads it into a wooden mold and with skill and precision learned from years of training, blows the piece to shape. The blown crystal is removed from the mold and is worked into shape with the same kind of wooden paddle, tongs and shears used centuries ago.
The piece is then removed from the pipe with a solid metal rod called the pontil and transferred into the annealing oven, where it is laid down on a sort of a slow conveyor belt to cool down gradually through decreasing temperature levels. Each process is strategically performed by one person. The movements of the whole team of glassmakers is so synchronized, it’s like watching ballet. They go through the motions with the exact same speed, twists and turns amid the fire, the smoke and the glistening crystal. There are hundreds of them doing this in an area they refer to as the furnace.
We then moved to the cutting workshop. Cutting has a decorative function but it is also used to eliminate imperfections. Baccarat was the first to use a hydraulically-powered system. The movement of the lathes drove a set of wheels or cutting stones which engraves on the crystal following a pattern drawn on the piece with Judea bitumen. The piece is cut, engraved, softened and polished and all done freehand and demand infallible know-how on the part of the cutter. Again, as in the case of the glassmakers working around the furnaces, the engravers’ methods have not changed since 1824.
There are several methods of decorating crystals, cutting, engraving, acid-engraving and sand-blasting. Colored crystals as well as a combination of colored and clear also take different processes. Baccarat also produces these spheres full of charm and poetry called mille fiori, round paperweights of clear glass containing hundreds of tightly packed little tubes of all shapes and colors, assembled in order to produce the effect of an array of flowers. The limited edition piece for the millennium, containing 2,000 tiny tubes, is on display at Deco Centrum in Annapolis, Greenhills. Go visit and Mitos will be more than happy to take you through the marvelous process.
The factory is so big, it was almost noon when we went back to the chateau. We had lunch with Paul Wachenheim, the factory manager. As always, lunch was a treat and the wines just kept getting better.
Later, we visited the Baccarat Boutique in the middle of town and went to La Chapelle to gaze in awe at the giant chandelier – what a magnificent work of art!
Time to snap out of this rapture and bounce back to reality. My visit to Baccarat is like an exquisite dessert. I remember the sights and the flavors long after I’ve come home. Like the final act of the play, it has left me speechless and craving for more.
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