Marolles, a history of furniture and design in Loir et Cher.

Jean Touret was born in Lassay Les Châteaux in Mayenne on April 7, 1928. Fatherless at 12, he was brought up by an authoritarian mother. Before the outbreak of war, he was employed by an insurance company in the litigation department.

In 1945, France came out of the war. Victorious, but devastated. Jean Touret, was taken prisoner at the start of the war. Sent to southern Germany, to the wooded and metalliferous mountains of the Erzgebirge. There he shared the rustic life of the peasants. He was a lumberjack. He discovered trees, and woodworking.

1947: settling in Marolles.

Back in France, he felt incapable of reintegrating the petty bourgeois world as he had known it before the war. He needs to give a wider meaning to his life.

Before the war, he had taken drawing and painting lessons in Le Mans with a friend.

He settles, with his wife Odile, in Marolles, a tiny Beauceron village of 450 inhabitants, exclusively rural, near Blois.

First a painter, it was by dint of frequenting a friend’s studio that he got the idea of ​​creating furniture.

1950: The Craftsmen of Marolles

Jean Touret deplores the general public’s taste for standardized furniture, manufactured in industrial materials, forgetting traditional know-how, and withdrawing work from local artisans.

He therefore decides to create an association for the production of furniture and D’decorative objects with the craftsmen of the village by associating the know-how: a cabinetmaker, an ironworker, a basket maker and later a ceramist.

Very quickly, the creations and furniture of the artisans of Marolles were a huge success.

The ORTF even devoted a report in June 1956 to this small village of 450 souls energized by the presence and work of artisans.

And in 1958, the first exhibition of Furniture Marolles takes place in the Blois Castle.

1959: The Craftsmen of Marolles and Loir et Cher

The furniture of Marolles is a great commercial success. The production of Artisans de Marolles is insufficient to meet demand. This arouses envy among other craftsmen who try to use the same vein. To counter this danger, the Artisans of Marolles decided to incorporate new artisans into their cooperative, extending it to Loir et Cher. A new commercial status is created.

1964: Departure of Jean Touret and split of the group

Jean Touret moves from the village of Marolles, north of the Loire, for that of Montils, still in Blésois, but south of the Loire.

Jean Touret decides to devote himself entirely to sculpture; he left the artistic direction of the group of ” Craftsmen of Marolles and Loir et Cher ». The craftsmen of the initial group resume their autonomy to found a new group called “Crafts of Marolles »Joined by a carpenter from Blois, Mr Lézé.

These two groups will coexist for some time. They will no longer have a designated artistic director. The design of the furniture will evolve, significantly diverging from the “Jean Touret design.

After Marolles?

Sculptor, Jean Touret will return to the roots of his art. And he will continue to produce many works, joined by his son Sébastien Touret (still active in Monthou-sur-Bièvre). He moved to Montils, still in the Loir et Cher, but this time south of Blois.

In the life of Jean Touret, there was, a few years later, a decisive encounter, with the Cardinal Lustiger, who commissioned sculptures, altarpieces, liturgical objects and fittings for places of worship. For more than 30 years Jean Touret and Mgr Lustiger will maintain a friendship, which will nourish the art of Jean Touret; the latter died in 2004.

And today, what remains of the Artisans of Marolles and Jean Touret?

A state of mind. A humanist message. We readily speak of the “Marolles style”, a style often copied or imitated, which designates a return to nature, somewhat vernacular, which characterized a certain production of the time, that of a France which was struggling to recover from the second war and occupation.

Furniture stamped “Marolles“with the symbol ofelephant are extremely sought after. Some collectors and some Parisian galleries sometimes offer pieces in often very good condition. It must be said that the quality of the furniture of the artisans of Marolles is undeniable.

An auction in Tours on November 20 at the Giraudeau Sales Hotel.

It is also possible to find pieces in some sales reserved for furniture and furnishings, like the one, exceptional, offered by the auctioneers Jabot, Gauthier and Bensaïah, this November 20, 2021, at the Giraudeau auction house, 246 – 248 Rue Giraudeau, in Tours (Indre et Loire).

Upstream of this sale, the Friday 19 November 2021, at 6.30 p.m., a discussion around the production of Jean Touret and the Artisans de Marolles is proposed and animated by his son Francois Touret.

And in Marolles, in the Loir et Cher?

Nothing remains of the adventure of the Artisans and Jean Touret. It is not mentioned on the website of the municipality either. However, when he comes face to face with the school in the rue de la Garenne, he seems to have a strange lineage. Yet built in 2014, we could see in the extension of the school, a nice nod that only connoisseurs can understand.

To go further: Jean Touret, pure matter, AD Magazine.

The “official” site of Francois Touret, son of Jean Touret: jeantouret.fr.