22/03/2026
Edgar Brandt: The great French ferroniere that made intricately-beautiful pieces forged his name through the Art Deco period to become arguably the greatest blacksmith of the 20th century.
-From an early age Brandt had been interested in nature. His father was an amateur gardener and he was taught to both love and respected it. His work is a reflection of this and has been described and a density of stylised, finely detailed flower and plant motifs, sometimes offset with animal or human figures.
-Edgar started at 21 in a tiny Parisian workshop making jewellery — brooches, crosses, small silverwork. This small scale success lead him to expand to large scale projects and within two decades he employed 3,000 workers in a state-of-the-art factory on the outskirts of Paris.
-His career was grew through beauty but also destruction. During WWI, Brandt designed an aerodynamic mortar shell so effective that its fundamental design hasn’t substantially changed in over a century. The same hands that shaped exquisite iron roses also armed the French military.
-In 1923 he was commissioned to create the eternal flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath the Arc de Triomphe — one of France’s most sacred monuments. His metalwork has burned there ever since.
-The 1925 Exposition a fair with strict design guidelines that expanded across 57 acres in the middle of Paris is where Edgar solidified his name and as the best decorative ironworker internationally.
-His “La Tentation” snake lamp, made with Daum glassmakers, features a life-sized bronze python cradling a sunset-toned glass shade. Designed to be “dually beautiful and menacing” — it remains one of the most iconic Art Deco objects ever created.
-Brandt’s most important commission was the Escalier Mollien staircase inside the Louvre that resembles S and C shaped scrolls with gilded acanthus surrounding the rosettes.
-His five-panel “L’Oasis” screen sold at auction for $1,876,000 USD — one of the highest prices ever paid for decorative ironwork.
-He designed the elevator panels for Selfridges in London. They were so significant they ended up in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Edgar William Brandt, 24/12/1880-8/5/1960