POILLERAT Gilbert

Gilbert POILLERAT

France (1902-1988)

Gilbert Poillerat studied engraving at Ecole Boulle in Paris to 1921. From 1921 to 1927, he worked for metalworker Edgar Brandt in the rue Marat in Paris as a designer and creator of wrought-iron furniture and furnishings. In 1927, Poillerat began working for Baudet, Donon et Roussel, the carpentry and metal construction workshop, in charge of its news wrought iron section. Gilbert Poillerat designed and produced grillework, tables, chairs, consoles, screens, lighting, and firedogs. Poillerat working in a variety of media from jewelry to clothing, his metalwork was rendered in characteristic winding calligraphic forms. He designed the 1934 ornamental door with folk scenes for a scholarly group in Maison-Alfort, inexpensive jewelry for couturier Jacques Heim and a bronze door for the 1935 oceanliner Normandie. Commissions included work for the Bibliothèque Nationale and the Palais de Chaillot. In 1946, he became a professor at the Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs and set up his own workshop. Poillerat abandoning furniture and furnishings, he turned to monumental wrought-iron work, filing a number of commissions, including, those for public and governmental buildings and the Palais de L’Élysée. In 1957, he designed the façade ironwork of the new synagogue in Strasbourg. Gilbert Poillerat often worked with french interior designer Jacques Adnet.

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