Mellerio dits Meller is a French jewellery house, founded in 1613, and still active today. It is the oldest family company in Europe. It gives its name to the Mellerio cut, a 57-facet jewel cut, shaped as an oval within an ellipse. Today Mellerio is based in

rue de la Paix The rue de la Paix (English: Peace Street) () is a fashionable shopping street in the center of Paris. Located in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris, running north from Place Vendôme and ending at the Opéra Garnier, it is best known for its jewe ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, with branches in

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It is a member of the

Comité Colbert The Comité Colbert is an association "to promote the concept of luxury." The members are 81 French luxury brands. It was founded in 1954 by Jean-Jacques Guerlain. ''Métiers'' or Trade Sectors The association is divided into thirteen métiers o ...

and also of the

Henokiens The Henokiens () is an association of companies that have been continuously operating and remain family-owned for 200 years or more, and whose descendants still operate at management level.. It derives its name from the biblical patriarch Enoch ( ...

, an international club made up of family companies over 200 years old. Directors François and Olivier Mellerio are the fourteenth generation to run the family business.

History

The firm started in 1613, founded by the Mellerio family from

Valle Vigezzo Valle Vigezzo (Vigezzo Valley) is a valley in the Lepontine Alps in northwestern Italy on the border with Canton Ticino of Switzerland. It forms the eastern branch of the Ossola valley. It is also called the Valle dei Pittori (Valley of the Pai ...

, under the patronage of

Marie de Médicis Marie de' Medici (french: link=no, Marie de Médicis, it, link=no, Maria de' Medici; 26 April 1575 – 3 July 1642) was Queen of France and Navarre as the second wife of King Henry IV of France of the House of Bourbon, and Regent of the Kingdom ...

. Jean-Baptiste Mellerio (1765-1850) started trading in

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...

in 1777, and attracted the patronage of

Queen Marie Antoinette Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne (; ; née Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child an ...

. According to Côme Mellerio referring to his company's archives, on the day of the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

(14 July 1789), the sales of their Mellerio shop in Paris were excellent. In 1796, he set up shop on rue Vivienne, Versailles, retaining the patronage of the

Empress Josephine An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother (empr ...

. Francois Mellerio (1772-1843) moved the firm to Paris, initially at 4, rue du Coq Saint-Honoré. In 1815, he moved the workshop to 9, rue de la Paix in Paris, where it remains today. After the restoration of the French monarchy in 1830, Mellerio became suppliers to Queen Marie-Amélie and

King Louis-Philippe Louis Philippe (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, and the penultimate monarch of France. As Louis Philippe, Duke of Chartres, he distinguished himself commanding troops during the Revolutionary Wa ...

. Jean-François Mellerio (1815-1896) opened a branch in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

in 1850 from which he supplied customers including

Queen Isabella II Isabella II ( es, Isabel II; 10 October 1830 – 9 April 1904), was Queen of Spain from 29 September 1833 until 30 September 1868. Shortly before her birth, the King Ferdinand VII of Spain issued a Pragmatic Sanction to ensure the successio ...

and the future Empress Eugenie of France. The company's estimated sales (in 2010/2011) were €8 million.

Notable works

Mellerio has an archive of about 100,000 items.

Trophies

Mellerio made the

Coupe des Mousquetaires La Coupe des Mousquetaires (English: The Musketeers' Trophy) is the trophy awarded to the winner of the Men's Singles competition at the French Open. The trophy was created in its current form in 1981, after Philippe Chatrier, then president o ...

trophy, awarded to the winner of the Men's Singles competition at the

French Open The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...

since 1981. It is in the form of a large silver bowl, with a vine leaf trim. Coupe des Mousquetaires (French Open - Gentlemen's single)

Winners receive a pure silver replica of the trophy, specially made and engraved for each winner by the maison Mellerio. Mellerio has made the ceremonial sword for members of the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

, including

François Cheng François Cheng (; born 30 August 1929) is a Chinese-born French academician, writer, poet, and calligrapher. He is the author of essays, novels, collections of poetry and books on art written in the French language, and the translator of some o ...

. Each sword is unique, with the hilt decorated with symbols of its owner's achievements.

Tiaras and royal jewels

The Mellerio Shell tiara was given to Infanta Isabella of Spain as a wedding present from her mother

in 1868. The tiara had been made by Mellerio for the 1867 Paris Exhibition. It is made of diamonds in the shape of shells decorated with pearls. It remains part of the

Spanish Royal Family The Spanish royal family consists of King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia, their children (Leonor, Princess of Asturias and Infanta Sofía of Spain), and Felipe's parents, King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía. The royal family lives at Zarzuela Palace i ...

jewels, worn today by

Queen Sofia of Spain Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mothe ...

. Mellerio is also attributed with the creation of the Spanish Floral Tiara, made of diamonds in a pattern of flowers, which was a wedding gift to the future Queen Sofia from

General Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War and thereafter ruled over Spain from 193 ...

on her marriage to

Juan Carlos Juan Carlos I (;, * ca, Joan Carles I, * gl, Xoán Carlos I, Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias, born 5 January 1938) is a member of the Spanish royal family who reigned as King of Spain from 22 Novem ...

of Spain in 1962. The jewel collection of the

Dutch royal family The monarchy of the Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy. As such, the role and position of the monarch are governed by the Constitution of the Netherlands. Consequently, a large portion of it is devoted to the monarch. Roughly a third of ...

includes a tiara made by Mellerio for Queen Emma. The ruby tiara is part of a set made in 1889. Mellerio also made the rose pattern diamond tiara bought by

Victor Emmanuel II of Italy en, Victor Emmanuel Maria Albert Eugene Ferdinand Thomas , house = Savoy , father = Charles Albert of Sardinia , mother = Maria Theresa of Austria , religion = Roman Catholicism , image_size = 252px , succession1 ...

for the 1868 wedding of his son, Prince Umberto, to

Margherita of Savoy Margherita of Savoy (''Margherita Maria Teresa Giovanna''; 20 November 1851 – 4 January 1926) was Queen of Italy by marriage to Umberto I. Life Early life Margherita was born to Prince Ferdinand of Savoy, Duke of Genoa and Princess Elisabeth ...

. A 1742 peacock brooch by Mellerio was worn by Anita Delgado as princess of Kapurthala.

Mellerio family

At one time, the family owned the Pavilon de Musique in Versailles, built for Princess Marie Joséphine of Savoy. The events surrounding the death of Antoine Mellerio in 1870 inspired

Robert Browning Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings ...

’s 1873 poem " Red Cotton Night-Cap Country". André Mellerio (1862-1943) was an art critic and publisher, and author of ‘ Mouvement idéaliste en peinture’ (1896) who popularised the work of the artists

Odilon Redon Odilon Redon (born Bertrand Redon; ; 20 April 18406 July 1916) was a French Symbolism (arts), symbolist painter, printmaker, Drawing, draughtsman and pastellist. Early in his career, both before and after fighting in the Franco-Prussian War, he ...

and

Charles Guilloux Charles-Victor Guilloux (1866–1946) was a French symbolist artist. Biography Guilloux was born in Paris in 1866 and died in Lormes, Nièvre, in 1946. An employee of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, G ...

. Charles Mellerio (1879 – 1978) was an artist whose watercolours were exhibited many times at the

Salon des Artistes Français The Salon (french: Salon), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art ...

at the

Grand Palais The Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées ( en, Great Palace of the Elysian Fields), commonly known as the Grand Palais (English: Great Palace), is a historic site, exhibition hall and museum complex located at the Champs-Élysées in the 8th arro ...

. He received the

Prix de Rome The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...

award for drawing at the age of 20.

References