Beddington Fine Art / History of Bianchini Férier

Messrs Atuyer, Bianchini and Férier founded their silk-manufacturing business in Lyon on 23rd July 1888.

With the award of a Silver Medal at the Exposition Universelle 1889 in this, their first year, so began a century of success: the opening of offices in Paris in 1897, London and Brussels 1902, New York 1909 and then, in 1912, Bianchini signed a contract with Raoul Dufy, the brilliant designer for couturier, Paul Poiret.

This relationship was to last until 1928 and encompassed no less than 4,000 original designs, which represent undoubtedly the most influential oeuvre relative to the Applied Arts in the 20th century.

Bianchini Férier contiinued to work with the Fashion Houses, Worth, Lanvin, Patou etc and survived the Depression thanks, in the main, to their entry into the Prêt à Porter and tie-manufacturing markets.

The post-war period saw the expansion of their scarf-manufacturing for Hermès and Jacques Fath, among others, and, from the early sixties, Bianchini Férier created superb designs for Givenchy, Balenciaga, Cardin,Chanel Dior, Feraud, Laroche, Nina Ricci, YSL and Scherrer.

Bianchini Férier exists today, albeit under a different name as this historic House was first taken over by Tissages Bauman in 1992 and then, more recently, by Cédric Brochier.

In 1999, a part of their Archive, 'Les Grands Livres', comprising 191 books containing 25,000 textile samples was purchased by the State for the Textile Museum in Lyon.

Coming from the same unique Archive, this beautiful and varied collection of watercolours, gouaches and empreintes bears testimony as much to his French and Italian co-contributors, as it does to the Great Master, Dufy, himself, for their enormous contribution to the evolution of the Decorative Arts in the 20th century.