World Monitor Magazine #1 WM march 2018 (1) | Page 40

Baccarat
Crystal
Baccarat Crystal is a French manufacturer of fine crystal
glassware located in Baccarat, France. The company
owns two museums: the Musée Baccarat in Baccarat,
Meurthe-et-Moselle and the Musée Baccarat in Paris
on the Place des États-Unis. Groupe du Louvre is the
majority shareholder of the company and is a subsidiary
of the United States company Starwood Capital Group.
In 1764 King Louis XV of France gave permission for
France to Prince Bishop Cardinal Louis-Joseph de Laval-
Montmorency to found a glassworks in the town of
Baccarat in the Lorraine region of eastern (1710-1802).
Production consisted of window panes, mirrors and
stemware until 1816 when the first crystal oven went
into operation. By that time over 3000 workers were
employed at the site.
Baccarat received its first royal
commission in 1823.
This began a lengthy line of commissions for royalty and
heads of state throughout the world. In 1855 Baccarat
won its first gold medal at the Worlds Fair in Paris.
Baccarat first began marking its work with a registered
mark in 1860, which was a label affixed to the bottom
of the work. In the period 1846-1849 Baccarat signed
some of their high quality glass millefiori paperweights
with the letter B and the year date in a composite cane.
A special paperweight dated 1853 was found under the
cornerstone of a bomb-damaged church in Baccarat when
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