What Christofle is known for
French silversmith since 1830 — Mood egg flatware capsules and the art de la table of embassies. In 1842 Charles Christofle bought the patents for silver and gold electroplating and, official text says, was the only patent holder in France for 15 years; Louis-Philippe ordered a service for Château d’Eu.
Charles Christofle, a jeweler by training, acquired the French patents for electroplating in 1842 and turned silver from aristocratic hoard into republican splendor — Christofle, founded 1830, became goldsmith to King Louis-Philippe, then to Napoleon III, whose imperial table it laid entire. The Tuileries burned; the craft survived; the house has set the French state's grandest tables ever since, embassies and Élysée included.
The catalogue is table history itself: Marly's rococo flourish, the Art Deco masterpieces of the 1920s and 30s created with Gio Ponti and Luc Lanel — the house's Normandie ocean-liner commissions remain collector grails — and the Mood egg, a mirrored capsule holding service for six, which made silverware an object of desire for apartments without butlers.
Production continues at the Normandy ateliers in Yainville with silversmithing's full trade intact. Owned by the Chalhoub family group since 2012, Christofle remains the argument France perfected: that civilization is measurable in the weight of a fork.
How ORBIS reads this city
Best for — Mood egg flatware capsules and embassy-grade silver tableware since 1830
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