Just imagine, generation after generation of a single wood-working family, each embellishing his craft, each bequeathing these hard-won skills to their off-spring. For ours, the 7th generation, we’ve revived the long dead art of marquetry, embellishing veneers with shagreen, straw, shell, parchment, and horn, adding unaffected luxury to our furniture. (A few other shops can handle one or two of these materials, but only Atelier Viollet has mastered them all.)

Yet we’re either cursed (or blessed), with dissatisfaction. We push ourselves to make each piece better than the last. To do that, we listen hard to every designer, each architect, all clients. Of course, the virtuoso craftsmen of Atelier Viollet chip in their bottomless knowledge of wood and its wondrous possibilities.