@DESIGNMIAMIPARIS we show a collection of very rare and important lamps and floor lamps made by VERRE LUMIERE and designed by :

-        Michel Boyer

-        Michel Mortier

-        Sabine Charoy

-        Pierre Soulié

-        Alberto Rosselli

-        Ben Swildens

-        L Œuf Centre d Etude

VERRE LUMIERE

Verre Lumiere was a French lighting company created in 1968 by the master glass maker Max Ingrand, in collaboration with Mazda electric company and Saint Gobain glass company.
 Max Ingrand, known for being the artistic director of Fontana Arte from 1954 to 1967, started working glass in the 30’s in Saint Gobain company. 
 As artistic director, Ingrand asked Ben Swildens to work with him, with Sabine Charoy. The commercial direction was entrusted to Jacques Vidal, who would play a key role in this new venture. Together they unite the french artisanal know-how with the modernity of the most contemporary important designers. Representing the essence of French creation which would spread throughout the world until the 1980’s. 
 As a result of his training, Max Ingrand favoured the use of glass in his designs, for example his famous lamp in opaline glass (model 1853) created in 1954, initially edited by Fontana Arte then distributed by Verre Lumière. The technical specificity of opaline glass confers a soft and homogenous diffusion of light and would become one of Verre Lumière’s signature materials, often associated with stainless steel, aluminum and brass. 

One of the objectives of Verre Lumière was to conceive spectacular lighting projects, by close collaboration with architects, which were adapted and unique to each specific space, and created in a unified vision of architecture and light. The company would collaborate with all of the big names in architecture of the period through prestigious projects such as (in France): 

-Peugeot headquarters in Paris (Ben Swildens, architect: Luc Sainsaulieu)
 -Lighting in the dining room and private salons in the Elysée palace during the terms of Presidents Pompidou and Mitterand (architects Pierre Paulin, Sportes and Y. Agam)
 -Ensemble of lighting in the Ecole Polytechinique de Palaiseau
 -The Hotel le Méridien Etoile
 -Headquarters and agencies of the Rothschild Bank
 -Architecture and decoration projects of Mobilier International
 -Many projects at La Defense
 -La Grand Motte (architecte Balladur).
 - and lot of Town Halls, concert halls, hotelsn theatres, ect …

Also throughout the world such as the palace of the Shah of Iran (Sabine Charoy), the French Embassy in Brasilia Brasil (Michel Boyer), and the Cosmos Hotel in Russia. 

The close collaboration between the designers and the architects within Verre Lumière also permitted the development of high-end lighting collections in contemporary forms. Lamps, floor lamps, sconces and suspension lights - all available to these same architects, but also distributed and sold in small series in its emblematic store on the rue Faubourg Saint-Honoré, conceived by Ben Swildens, and in a network of some other well-known shops. It is these exclusive and rare lighting pieces that the gallery Meubles et Lumières has reunited here for the first time.