Pierre-Alain Chambaz: "mes coups de coeur" Pictet un Maître verrier d'exception !!!

An Artisan's Devotion to Art Deco
Ludwig Vogelgesang—equipped with special tools, rare materials and traditional
know-how—revives furniture of the 1920s and 1930s
German-Brazilian cabinetmaker Ludwig
Vogelgesang is preserving France's Art Deco furniture-making tradition one piece at a time from his north Paris workshop. Mr. Vogelgesang, 60 years old, divides his work between restoring original pieces and creating new designs using period methods. The owner of Ludwig & Dominique, an atelier he co-founded in 1980, Mr. Vogelgesang has become an expert in using the rare and expensive materials preferred by the original Art Deco cabinetmakers: ivory, Macassar ebony, mica and shagreen (or stingray). Art Deco conquered the design world in the 1920s and 1930s, influencing everything from American ashtrays to Indian palaces. It reached its apogee in the west of Paris.Mr. Vogelgesang has the designation ebéniste d'art. That means he is an "art cabinetmaker"—skilled in the techniques associated with classic 18th-century French furniture and qualified to supervise specialists in related disciplines, such as gilders and upholsterers, to complete a piece.The workshop has a staff of six. (Former partner Dominque Talbot, a cabinetmaker,
retired in 2006.) Typically, interior designers and architects—such as Paris's Jacques Grange and New York's Peter Marino and Barbara Lane —bring clients to the company's attention. Auction houses also consult him about restoration, he adds.One Christie's referral led to work on the Lady Anne yacht, commissioned by Jerome Fisher, co-founder of the Nine West fashion company,and his wife, Anne. The couple asked for about 100 Art Deco-inspired pieces for the yacht's interior. Mr. Vogelgesang says his contribution to the project, finished in 2006, took about three years and cost several hundred thousand
dollars. The yacht now belongs to Washington Redskin's owner Daniel Snyder. Mr. Vogelgesang—born in Brazil to German parents—went to Paris in 1974, and learned the art of making and restoring furniture.
He uses tools from outside France. About 40% are from Lie-Nielsen Toolworks, of Maine, such as a special plane to finish a wood surface. The postwar move to mass production of furniture meant traditional techniques in France "were completely forgotten," he says.Mr. Vogelgesang has the designation ebéniste d'art. That means he is an "art cabinetmaker"—skilled in the techniques associated with classic 18th-century French furniture and qualified to supervise specialists in related disciplines, such as gilders and upholsterers, to complete a piece.The workshop has a staff of six. (Former partner Dominque Talbot, a cabinetmaker,
retired in 2006.) Typically, interior designers and architects—such as Paris's Jacques Grange and New York's Peter Marino and Barbara Lane —bring clients to the company's attention. Auction houses also consult him about restoration, he adds. One Christie's referral led to work on the Lady Anne yacht, commissioned by Jerome Fisher, co-founder of the Nine West fashion company, and his wife, Anne. The couple asked for about 100 Art Deco-inspired pieces for the yacht's interior. Mr. Vogelgesang says his contribution to the project, finished in 2006, took about three years and cost several hundred thousand
dollars. The yacht now belongs to Washington Redskin's owner Daniel Snyder.Mr. Vogelgesang—born in Brazil to German parents—went to Paris in 1974, and learned the art of making and restoring furniture.
He uses tools from outside France. About 40%are from Lie-Nielsen Toolworks, of Maine, such
as a special plane to finish a wood surface. The postwar move to mass production of furniture meant traditional techniques in France "were completely forgotten," he says.
Pierre-Alain Chambaz Pictet un maître verrier d'exception