Baccarat Crystal museum

On the 18th century, the Bishop of Metz gained huge areas in Lorraine, including forests around Baccarat. These forest were not really exploited. But the area was rich of sand, due to the abundant sandstone. Thus, with the local labour, the Bishop asked the King of France Louis XV the permission to establish in Baccarat a "usine à feu" : a fire factory. It gave birth to the Sainte-Anne Verrerie glass factory in 1764.

In 1817, the glass fabric is transformed into a crystal manufacture (by M. D’Artigues, coming from St. Louis). Due to the quality of the products, the success was immediate. Throughout the course of the 19th century, all the word commanders and famous people ordered their crystal in Baccarat. For instance, the tsar of Russia was a large consumer Baccarat crystal, considered to be the most beautiful of the world.

Some commands exceptional lighting :

• A huge lustre over one tonne and 200 lights for the Gwalior Maharadjah at the end of the 19th century.
• A series of 12 electrified candelabrum (3.80m tall) for the winter palace of the Tsar Nicholas II in Saint Petersburg.
• In 1994, for the 230th anniversary of Baccarat, the manufacture realized an exceptional work : a gigantic lustre in the pure style of the 19th century chandeliers (5m high, 3m in diameter, 1.5 tonne, 2150m of electrical wire, 15000 hours of work)...

Currently 70 % of the production is exported.

After a long specialization in tableware and lustres, Baccarat has diversify its production to perfumery, and then jewellery.

Baccarat decided to set up a prestigious Parisian showcase. Imagined by Philippe Starck, the Maison de Baccarat is located on the 11, Place des Etats Unis, in Paris... It exposes some the finest works of Baccarat.