in Gironde, Daniel holds a small treasure

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Since his arrival in the south of Gironde, 20 years ago, Daniel has set up a sort of small museum hidden in his garage.

A piece he prefers to keep secret locationjust like its identity, in order to preserve its panoply.

ChanelClarins, Ruinart, Yves Saint-Laurent… This temple of the luxury cardboard box is full of treasures. A collection originale set up from scratch by this former production manager of a cardboard factory.

A unique and luxurious collection

“I think I’m the only one in the world to have such a collection,” admits Daniel, a resident of the Podensac area. In part of his garage, he has set up a small private museum. Where we find boxes of perfume, cognac, cigarettes, etc.

Among his collection, some cardboard boxes have more than 100 ans. Others are in velvetsome in satin. The models on display have boxes of all sizes, all colors, and open differently depending on the order.

Some contain rice powders perfumed by Hermès. Others, once opened, become three-sided mirrors and the one, right next to it, once closed gives the illusion of three books stored in a library.

Perfumes, cognac, champagne

All the walls as well as an aisle cutting the room in two are covered with all kinds of boxes that contained perfume bottles, bottles of cognac or champagnebut also bottles of Chanel, Lalique, etc.

“Some of the pieces present here are unique in the world », confides the collector, showing a blue box containing a bottle of perfume. This one is unique simply because all the others were thrown away. In fact, between the order and the production of the luxury packaging, the sponsoring company went bankrupt. Daniel was the only one to keep a copy.

2,000 boxes collected throughout his career

But how could this Girondin become the holder of more than 2,000 boxesluxury products? He was quite simply, for more than ten years, production manager for a cardboard factory in Seine-et-Marne. Basically, he had no training. But that didn’t stop him from excelling in his field.

I fell into the box accidentally.

By training, Daniel held a CAP ofbalance adjuster . A job in mechanics which allows him to be spotted by a client for whom he works and who offers him to work on paper presses and cardboard.

Discovery of the world of cardboard

He then discovered the world of cardboard. A first contact which leaves him perplexed.

At the beginning, when I saw that because of a microdefect, they were throwing away the boxes, I told them ‘But you’re crazy!’

If the passion for cardboard is not there, the desire toinvent things are present.

“Our machines could only make square or rectangular boxes. The Clarins company, specializing in beauty products, came up with a project for bias-cut boxes. My boss at the time came to present this project to me and consult me ​​to find out if I could take on this challenge. I said it was possible,” the mechanic recalls.

Word got out to other cardboard manufacturers and people said I was lying, that I wouldn’t make it.

A pioneer in cardboard box production

As a result, Daniel rethinks the machines, adapts them and succeeds to fulfill the order from the beauty product brand. “I was the first to adapt the machines to make different models. Before, these kinds of boxes were handmade », argues the former production manager of the Aubert cardboard factory.

A certain technical prowess possible, because Daniel knew his machines by heart and he liked to “invent new things”.

During the ten years spent as production manager, he recovered and stores boxes and samples of his productions, but also of production prior to his arrival. He is now the owner of more than 2,000 boxesof luxury products that he treasures. Away from prying eyes.

Chanel, Paco Rabanne, Hennessy, Cartier, Chivas… They are all present on the shelves of the small storage room lit by dozens of spotsbright to highlight these curiosities.

Pair of white gloves and anti-humidity patches

After his company was bought by an American company and then liquidated in 1999, Daniel retired at age 57. Now aged 82 ans he takes care of these carefully arranged rooms.

Before moving or touching a box, he puts on a pair of white gloves. In each box, it leaves anti-humidity patches. Only downside? He is the only one who knows the history and particularities of each piece. No labels or museum cartel.

“It would take too much time to reference everything,” Daniel cuts short when the question is raised.

However, he hopes that one day his collection will be recovered by a museumso that it is not lost forever. “My worry is that when I die, it all risks going into the trash…”, the octogenarian concludes worriedly.

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