Series
Article reserved for subscribers
Sold in millions of copies, these objects have become the markers of an era and the icons of design. In our fourth episode, the nesting glass emblematic of school canteen tables and reputed to be unbreakable.
If there is one object that every French person has held in their hands at least once in their life, it is this one. Stackable, reputed to be unbreakable and rounded, the nesting glass, a fun emblem of canteens – who has not played at determining its age thanks to the number of the mold marked on its bottom? – has been, since the 1960s, a popular “icon” that has been honored in public design collections, notably at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris since 2007. Its distribution by Duralex in tens of millions of copies – 100 million cups, bowls and plates are said to have come out of the glassworks of La Chapelle-Saint-Mesmin (Loiret) in 2018, according to the monthly the new factory – makes it one of the best-selling objects made in France.
This is despite the capitalistic ups and downs of its production plant, which was taken over in July as a cooperative by its 200 or so employees. “It is perhaps the most democratic of all objects. It has stood the test of time; it is the schoolchildren’s glass. Its success is due to the simplicity of its lines and its very low manufacturing cost, which has allowed production to be maintained in France, notes Marianne Brabant, conservation assistant at the museum of
