Carving is the embodiment of our passion for sculpting wood, the starting point of our adventure. It is so today as it was so more than forty years ago. No machine, no technology can ever completely replace the creativity of artisans and their expertise, leading them to create something unique, something unrepeatable, which will grow in value with the passing of time.

Luis XIV Style (1643-1715)

This style came about in France during the reign of the Sun King, and is defined by pomp and splendour; it spread based on the example of furnishings of the royal residences (especially Versailles), greatly influencing the style and decor of furniture from all over Europe.
Driven by the desire to give to the French throne a prestigious foundation, in 1662 Louis XIV founded the “Manifacture Royale des Meubles de la Couronne” headquartered at Gobelins; management of this vast structure, which included carpenters, cabinetmakers, upholsterers, sculptors, plasterers, embroiderers, goldsmiths, etc., was given to the first court painter, Charles Le Brun, whose taste of courtly solemnity left its mark on all products.

A typical characteristic of Louis XIV style is that of gilded furniture, where the architectural structures are almost hidden by the exuberance of ornamental reliefs – exaggerated fullness, dramatic contrast of colour, and passion for exotic styles are also strong themes that have characterized the style of Louis XIV.
The importance of the furniture as an expression of wealth and power is also found in the more elaborate materials used for this style, such as ivory, tortoiseshell, brass, horn and imported Japanese lacquer.
Towards the end of the reign of Louis XIV, the design of the furnishings took on a delicate and curved contour of “rocaille”, which moved away from any reference to the architectural form, anticipating the upcoming style.

Luis XV Style (1723-1744)

This style developed during the reign of Louis XV and within different forms of decorative arts we find those characteristics of rococo that already had matured during the short transition style known as Regency style: a predilection for curved lines and asymmetrical composition of decorative elements, inspired the repertoire of naturalistic forms and shapes.
After the political despotism of the Sun King, the patronage of the decorative arts took place by transferring it to a private upper-middle class clientele – the artist had to therefore respond to the changing needs of style and design forms in scale with homes and abodes. This furniture, for a rich and sophisticated social class, had more harmonious proportions, curved lines and light decorations in gilt bronze volute and foliage that adorned without weighing it down, lacquer or inlaid with ornamental motifs representing stylized flowers, landscapes, and chinoiserie.
At a time when France became accustomed to wealth, the Louis XV style, full of fantasy, is in line with the achievements, aspirations and the prestige of the nation.

Luis XVI Style (1774-1792)

This style came to be during the reign of Louis XVI, and can be perceived as the French version of the first stage of neoclassical style, the formation of which contributed to the interest in forms and motifs of classical art that had already arisen in the period of Louis XV, driven and inspired by the discoveries of Herculaneum and Pompeii.
The refined elegance of certain expressions of French decorative arts escaped, however, the extent of that model found in classicism, although in this period we find the simplification process and formal approach required by the onset of the Empire style.

In the field of furniture and furnishings, the more important transformations that occurred can be found in stylistic variations of shapes and patterns of the past. The recovery of ancient and bygone styles, played upon with the eighteenth century taste, led to a form of eclecticism and ambiguous coexistence between neoclassical and rococo decorative motifs, whose manifestations overstepped the limits of the period of Transition, only to later recede. In the late Louis XVI style, furniture took on structures that – architecturally speaking – were more precise. The locket and the lyre replaced the shape of the shell in the design of the back of the chairs, which, like other furniture pieces, had legs that were straight, cylindrical or rectangular. The decorative repertoire drew equally from Greek and Egyptian styles, as well as from Roman and classic styles of the Italian Renaissance. The furniture that was fashionable in the Rococo period was also popular during the era of Louis XVI, renewed in form based on a rigorous definition of linear symmetry.

Empire Style (1804-1820)

This style was adopted during Napoleon’s rise to power – a man whose personality dominated even the concept of beauty and art. The historical origins of this style, as a response to a very precise political need, therefore, are primarily French, although his influences were perceived to varying degrees in all European countries. While agreeing with neoclassicism some important aspects and components, the Empire style denaturalised Enlightenment and coincided with a programmatic choice of a formal personality.
Empire style French furniture is characterized by a feeling of heaviness in form and uses a great deal of mahogany, lack of inlays, instead what stands out are the bronze sconces and porcelain plaques inspired by decorative motifs taken from Egyptian, Greek and Roman times. There are other motifs, such as "N" and the ubiquitous stylized laurel wreath. In choosing types of furnishings, we find the characteristic profile of the French sleigh beds (bed en bateau) and the "imperial" and "Turkish" beds, the "gondola" chairs, the consoles, the guéridon, the saut-de-lit, the work tables with the raised top and equipped with a mirror, as well as the dressing table (very similar to the console) with adjustable mirror, the coffee table somno placed in the rooms next to the bed, the psyche’, the large swivel mirror (oval or rectangular), enclosed in a mahogany frame and supported by two lateral uprights. Artists and workshops contributed to the fortune of the Empire style in the field of all applied arts and their contribution was instrumental in the formation and spread of the taste of this era.
Echoes of the Empire style persisted beyond the Napoleonic period, surviving and resurfacing throughout the nineteenth century.

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