Les Metalliers Champenois was kind enough to give us a tour of their enormous workshop in Patterson, New Jersey. As incredible of scale the Statue of Liberty is, their repusse work is hands down the best being produced anywhere in the world today -and that, sadly is a small amount.
From the
L.M.C. website:
Since 2007, Les Métalliers Champenois (LMC Corp.) is a fully US owned and operated atelier, continuing in America the ancient European and American tradition of fine ornamental metalwork. In 1984 following historic achievements in the field of landmark restoration with projects like the Chateau de Versailles and the ornate gates on the Place Stanislas in Nancy, LMC was entrusted with its crowning and most visible achievement to date: The recreation of the Torch and Flame for the Statue of Liberty, which now stands with A. Bartholdi’s original vision of a gilt torch that had, until then, never been realized.
The LMC atelier, equipped with modern machinery and old age hand tools, is holding high the legacy of the ancient trade of metalwork. Next to its hot forging gas and coal furnaces and anvils, the atelier of repousse works – one of the few still existing in the world – produces the delicate – and time-consuming – rosettes, water and acanthus leaves that constitutes the trademarks of outstanding metalwork.
