Notes:
The Baccarat manufactory was founded in 1765 by Louis-Joseph de Montmorency-Laval, Bishop of Metz (1724-1808), who had been granted permission by Louis XV to establish a glassworks in the Lorraine Region. At first, the works produced practical glass goods, such as windows and bottles. After surviving the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, Baccarat was bought in 1815 by Aimé-Gabriel d'Artigues (1773-1848), who owned a glassworks in the section of France which now had been designated part of the new country of Belgium, and who wanted to acquire a French company primarily for import tax reasons. Under his ownership, the newly named ‘Voneche Baccarat’ company shifted production to incredibly high quality pieces, using heavy lead-crystal glass to make bottles, stemware and chandeliers, as well as the paperweights with which the Baccarat name soon became synonymous. Experimentation led to the development of such techniques as ‘millefiori’, which was perfected by Baccarat artisans in the mid-19th century.
