Jean-Pierre Baquère, Verrier

Jean-Pierre Baquère, born in Argenteuil in 1949, inherited his passion for glass from his parents—his father worked for famed French crystal house Baccarat and his mother was a pétalière, handmaking glass flowers for couture houses. Baquère, who describes himself as a verrier de la flamme—“it sounds so much more poetic than glassblower”—uses a centuries-old technique, blowing and inflating molten glass fused to the end of a hollow tube that he holds in a propane-and-oxygen flame. Among Baquère’s own sophisticated glass artworks are giant suspended Saturne lanterns and illuminated Garden of Eden sculptures, intricately fashioned from glass, metal and optic fibers (2002). He’s also put his talent at the service of France’s top fashion and perfume houses, creating replicas of a Louis XIII glass service for Dior and designing limited-edition perfume bottles for Caron for more than 25 years. Caron’s Fleur de Rocaille bottles, hand-decorated with gold leaf by Baquère’s partner, Isabelle Emmerique, have become collector’s items. (Emmerique is also a specialist in lacquer work.) His latest creation is a reinterpretation of a 1957 pear-shaped Caron bottle, for the perfumer’s newest scent La Belle Hélène—it took some twelve weeks of intensive work in three different ateliers to craft the 300 individually signed and numbered crystal bottles in the limited-edition run. Committed to sharing his 45 years of experience with the next generation, the master glassblower organizes regular classes in his workshop in the Paris suburb of Colombes, open to both professionals and the general public. Classes by appointment. 5 rue Bouin, Colombes, 01.47.86.09.49.

Originally published in the December 2009 issue of France Today