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Chaumet

Chaumet S.A.
Industry High jewellery and fine watchmaking
Founded 1780
Founder Marie-Étienne Nitot
Headquarters 12, Place Vendôme, Paris
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Marie-Étienne Nitot, Joseph Chaumet
Owner LVMH
Website www.chaumet.com

The House of Chaumet (French: [ʃo.mɛ]), founded in 1780, is a high-end jeweller based in Paris.

Chaumet is a jewellery and watchmaking designer founded in 1780 by Marie-Étienne Nitot. Fourteen artisans ply their trade in the workshop on Place Vendôme under the direction of foreman Pascal Bourdariat. As of 2012, it was owned by LVMH.

Marie-Étienne Nitot (1750-1809) settled in Paris in 1780 after having served his apprenticeship at Auber, then jeweller to Queen Marie-Antoinette. His aristocratic clientele remained loyal to him until the French Revolution in 1789. It was after that that the Nitot jewellery house really took off, becoming the official jeweller of Napoleon I in 1802.

With the help of his son François Regnault (1779-1853), Nitot created the jewellery that would offer the French Empire splendour and power. The jewellery for Napoleon’s wedding to Joséphine de Beauharnais, and later to Marie Louise de Habsburg-Lorraine, was created by Nitot. He designed and set Napoleon’s coronation crown, the hilt of his sword as well as many other pieces for the court.

François Regnault Nitot took over his father’s jewellery house on his death in 1809 and continued his activity until the fall of the Empire in 1815. Napoleon’s exile caused Nitot, a fervent royalist, to withdraw from the jewellery house, selling the business to his foreman, Jean Baptiste Fossin (1786-1848).

Assisted by his son Jules (1808-1869), Fossin elegantly interpreted romantic jewellery pieces inspired by the arts of the Italian Renaissance and the French 18th century, but also naturalist-themed pieces. The elite of the period were won over and the family of Louis-Philippe, King of France from 1830 to 1848, as well as the Duchesse de Berry, succeeded Napoleon on the list of famous clients of what was to become Chaumet. They included personalities such as Anatole Demidoff, a Russian prince married to Napoleon’s niece, Princess Mathilde Bonaparte, as well as many painters, sculptors and writers, both French and foreign.


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