The first ledger sits in a wooden box behind the bench, wrapped in brown paper that has not been opened since 1924. Inside, in a slow blue hand, the founder recorded the first six orders of the maison.
Five engagement rings — three for Parisians, two for visitors from Saint-Petersburg — and a single private commission described only as “une chose pour le matin”. A thing for the morning. The piece itself has been lost; the line in the ledger remains.
“An object made early in the morning, for the morning itself.”
What we know is that the order was filled in eleven days and paid in full — a sum the apprentice records, in a different hand, as “suffisante pour le bois”. Enough for the wood. The bench in the workshop today is built from the bench he bought with it.
A note on the hand
The first ten years of the ledger are written in the same hand. From 1908 onward a second hand appears, then a third. The fifth hand began writing this morning.