Inspired by the originality of the encounter between the exceptional heritage of LUCIEN GAU and the most contemporary approach to glass, the BLUEBIRD CHANDELIER combines in perfect harmony, precision of form and poetry of glass. A subtle balance between skill and daring, the result of high-precision craftsmanship, this partnership embodies the core values of luxury, excellence and creativity.

Two artistic Companies
VERRE L’ESSENTIEL is a glass artists company; they bring together the expertise of blown and stained glass and is situated in Hyères in the south of France since 2007. Their design studio create and produce exceptional custom chandeliers.
VERRE L’ESSENTIEL’s credo is its constant effort to tame fire, to melt the raw opaque material in order to create the most beautiful glass in three areas of ancestral expression; the chandelier, stained glass and blown glass art pieces. The mastery of these skills in the service of creation gives the glass “a new artistic place” in architecture.

Their work, which combines lasting values and creation are works of art in their own right as art collectors and designers retain them for their projects.
The encounter of two creators from fire -art pro fessions Julien Gau comes from a family of fine bronze smiths. His ancestor, Lucien Gau, founded in the company LUCIEN GAU in 1860, a Parisian art manufacturer, specializing in the creation, reproduction and restoration of bronze objects. At the head of an exceptional, cultural and industrial heritage, it is lighting in particular that forged his reputation as the first Creator-Manufacturer of chandeliers.

After a business school training, Julien Gau began his career in 2002 with a major audit firm in Paris, dedicated to advising companies, but his passion for contemporary art led him to London in 2004 on behalf of Tate Modern Museum before joining a real estate group specializing in the luxury hotel industry in Paris in 2006.

However, family duties have led him to take over the direction of the company Lucien Gau in 2014. The challenge for this sixth generation of bronze smiths is to promote French heritage abroad while continuing to contribute to French contemporary creation in the service of individuals, decorators and designers.
A man of his time, Julien Gau wants to leave his mark, by reconciling tradition and innovation, both in the private and public sphere and in particular he aims to revisit urban furniture.

It is in that dynamic of renewal that he was naturally led to meet the artist Phillippa Martin, a journey-woman glass maker at VERRE L’ESSENTIEL. From this creative exchange, based on a common passion for fire-art professions of bronze and glass, was born the “BLUEBIRD CHANDELIER”.

Phillippa Martin, proposes a new artistic perspective on the contemporary chandelier. The construction of a chandelier is both elevation and centering; these “celestial trees” are real sculptures, made of glass elements which allow their reading by the light, from top to bottom and from bottom to top. The chandelier casts its forms all around; a suspended graphic sculpture, bright and transparent by day or night.
 
“Through my artistic work I hope to make sensitive the link between the earth, the
heart and the heavens by expressing their invisible dialogue. This link is at once
material construction and spiritual openness.
My works create a sensation of physical elevation and contemplative openness. I
express my faith and my love of glass making through my glass chandeliers and unique blown pieces”.
 
For Phillippa Martin the link begins with line and color, maintains through the creative dialogue with her partners, as with Julien GAU and continues in the material itself like a filigrane, inviting and guiding us to an elevation where chandeliers are the highest graphic expression: the link be

VERRE L’ESSENTIEL
526, chemin de la Source,
ZI Saint Martin, 83400 Hyères
+33 (0)4 94 36 10 65
www.verrelessentiel.com
 
MAISON LUCIEN GAU
2, rue de la Roquette, 75011 Paris
+33 (0)1 48 05 22 11
 
LA fABRIQUE DU RETAIL
4, avenue de Messine, 75008 Paris
+33 (0)6 82 12 30 67
 
Conception graphique et réalisation
Imprimerie Hémisud
www.hemisud.com
 
Crédits photographiques
Anja Nerrings, Anne Settimelli
2, rue de La Roquette,
75011 Paris
+33 1 48 05 22 11
www.luminaires-gau.fr