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Marchak
Joseph Marchak was born in 1854. From childhood he showed artistic talent and while apprenticing at a jeweller’s workshop at the age of 14, he dreamed of starting his own business. Ten years after his apprenticeship, the House of Marchak was founded in 1878 in Kiev, part of Russia at that time. He won awards at the World Fair in Chicago in 1893 and in Antwerp in 1894. Marchak was considered an outright competitor of Fabergé, despite also being his friend, because both of them were appointed jewellers to the Imperial court of Russia.
Joseph’s son, Alexander Marchak, born in 1892, had been studying law and attending classes at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris before returning to Kiev to assist with the family business. In 1916, amidst the chaos preceding the Russian Revolution, he fled Kiev and returned to Paris where he established his own shop on the Rue de la Paix, near the Place Vendôme.
In 1922, Alexander entered into collaboration with Robert Linzeler. Their names are linked with some of the greatest jewels of the Art Deco period. They were amongst the 30 exhibitors who were invited that year to the Expositions des Arts Décoratifs where they won the Grand Prix.
In the 1940s, Alexander Marchak hired Alexander Diringer and Jacques Verger as designers for the company. Jacques Verger became Marchak's driving force. He became close friends with Hassan II, king of Morocco with whom he shared a taste for beautiful objects, and unique and precious sets of jewels.
Today, thanks to the alliance of Daniel Marchac - great-grand son of Joseph -, of Bertrand Degommier - designer of the brand who entered the house in 1960 - and of Mrs. Dominique de Blanchard who runs the Marchack’s high-jewellery workshop - Marchack’s legacy continues. And, since 2010, closer links between Paris, Moscow and Saint Petersburg have been renewed. |