CHATY VALLAURIS

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Gilbert Poillerat gives birth to the Chaty Vallauris sun mirror. Trained at the Boulle school around 1920, Gilbert Poillerat quickly became passionate about ironwork. In a few years, he became one of the most important French ironworkers. Admiring the art of the 17th and 18th centuries and the Baroque style, he draws inspiration from them while creating very innovative decorative objects. In the 1940s, he imagined a golden metal mirror that looked like a sun: the Chaty Vallauris mirror was born and would become a design icon!

In the 1950s, these golden, brass-colored mirrors were produced in the Chaty ironworks located in Vallauris, in the Alpes-Maritimes. Thus, the cardboard back of an authentic piece almost always bears the stamp “CHATY VALLAURIS A.M.”. Other features: a beautiful patina, an aged appearance and a convex mirror that widens the field of vision and increases brightness. The effect is surprising, almost unreal! It is from this particularity that this wall mirror takes its other, more mystical name: the witch’s eye mirror. Last point to check to ensure the authenticity of the Chaty Vallauris sun mirror: its golden rays are not tubular but made of folded metal. A real gem! 

Initially reserved for bourgeois interiors, this golden mirror has become more popular thanks to the production of more affordable variants inspired by it. Ornamental and elegant, a large model is perfect as a centerpiece of vintage decor: ideal, for example, above a sideboard or a bench to decorate the living room. It will also find its place in a composition alongside other decorative objects: a vase, a few candlesticks, a bust, a photo frame... You can also play with the mosaic effect and juxtapose several round sun mirrors of varying sizes: a vintage decoration full of character!