At Saint-Louis, renowned designer José Lévy brings a beloved and bewitching collection back to life over a decade later with three new pieces.
To understand Saint-Louis, one must travel back in time, all the way to the late eighteenth century. In a hidden valley in the Northern Vosges in France, formerly known as the Münzthal Valley, King Louis XV revitalised what had become an inactive glass production site in the wake of the Thirty Years’ War: the Münzthal glass factory. In 1767, the King ordered the glassworks to be rebuilt, christening it Royal Glassware of Saint-Louis.
More than a decade after its creation, site manager M de Beaufort discovered how to make expert-quality lead crystal, necessary for the production of crystal glassware and previously a technique only used in England. The glassworks factory was rechristened the Royal Cristallerie of Saint-Louis, leading the manufacture of crystal glass in France through the centuries and making its mark on society with the novel introduction of the usage of particular types of glassware for different drinks, as well as innovative design and crystal-making techniques.
Saint-Louis brought this extensive legacy in the art of glassware to the Hermès Group in 1995, where it has continued to lead in the creation of crystal items ranging from decorative pieces and furniture to tableware and lighting. While expert craftsmen have very much been at the root of the creations at Saint-Louis throughout the centuries, collaboration has also been central to the Maison’s creative process. Over the course of the twentieth century, artists including Paul Nicolas, Jean Sala, Jean Luce, Michel Colle and Maurice Dufrêne, among others, have pushed the Saint-Louis designs to new heights.
It is in this spirit that Saint-Louis has revived its collaboration with acclaimed French designer José Lévy, fifteen years since the two first worked together to breathe new life into the audacious Endiablés collection. Lévy, renowned for his bold vision and multidisciplinary approach to art and design, was most recently acclaimed in the global design forum for his creative direction of the French Pavilion at the Osaka World Expo in 2025. A longtime partner of Saint Louis, with his initial Endiablés collection revealed in 2011 and the Corollaires range of vases released in 2012, Lévy is best known for his alternative approach to objects, seeking to create items without a distinctly recognisable purpose but which are left free to the imagination.
A melding of classic shapes from Saint-Louis with Lévy’s artistic vision and contemporary touch, the Endiablés pieces create new possibilities in everyday objects, enlivening the potentially mundane and freeing the item from traditional associations. The pieces, each of them constructed from clear crystal, are either mass-coloured or coloured-layered crystal in one of the nine Saint Louis shades. Lévy has imagined three new pieces to join the Endiablés cast, which include the Bubbles champagne flute, the Roemer Apollo and a cocktail glass.
Despite their designated names, the true beauty of the Endiablés – in their first iteration and now more than a decade later – is their ability to elude definition. Bold colour combinations and clear crystal make each piece an object of aesthetic fascination, with form superseding function. Lévy succeeds in creating not just an object capable of attracting the eye but also one that can endlessly perplex, whether it be originally conceived as an eggcup, a champagne flute or a vase.
Although each of the Endiablés is imbued with Lévy’s artistic touch, combined with the savoir-faire of the Saint-Louis artisans, carrying a distinct essence, almost an independence, for those wishing to marry pairs from the collection together, there are boundless possibilities. Of the total ten hand-cut designs, each of them paying tribute to heritage pieces from the Maison, there exists an alluringly discordant harmony.
Whether experimenting with their myriad possibilities for use or concocting daring combinations of these charmingly mysterious pieces, it is precisely in this dynamic relationship that the true power of the Endiablés resides, under the ever-bolder artistic hand of José Lévy and the expert knowledge and craftsmanship of Saint-Louis.
