The Saddlers' House
The house before it was a global brand. Almost nothing survives on film from the saddlery years, so this facet holds genuine period artifacts only — the two founders, the trade advertisements Hermès ran when its own copy still called it a saddler, and the earliest moving footage of the Faubourg shopfront. It is deliberately short: the alternative would be filling it with modern films about the past.
Part of Hermès
5 moments in this segment.
- — Thierry Hermès. (1801–1878), born in Krefeld in Prussia and trained as a saddler in Normandy, opened a harness workshop in Paris in 1837 making bridles and collars for the carriage trade. He won a first-class medal at the Exposition Universelle of 1867 and never sold a handbag in his life.
- — Hermès Frères, Selliers — 24 Faubourg Saint-Honoré. A 1923 trade advertisement for Hermès Frères, Selliers. Three saddles run across the top; below them a golf-club case, travel and sports bags fitted with the patented 'fermeture éclair', a cigarette case and a fitted dressing table. Eighty-six years after Thierry Hermès opened his harness workshop, the house still advertised itself as a saddler first and everything else second.
- — Émile-Maurice Hermès, by Henri Manuel. Émile-Maurice Hermès, grandson of Thierry, in a studio portrait by Henri Manuel. He commissioned the zip-fastened leather golf jacket made for Edward, Prince of Wales, in 1918, bought his brother Adolphe out in 1919, introduced the first Hermès handbags in 1922, and assembled the collection of equestrian art that still fills the top floor of 24 Faubourg Saint-Honoré.
- — Hermès Sellier, and the agendas for 1949. The duc attelé — a horse and carriage with a groom and no driver, the house's mark, drawn after Alfred de Dreux — printed full-page in a Paris theatre programme for Feydeau's 'Occupe-toi d'Amélie' in 1948. Under the Faubourg address sit the three seasonal outposts, Biarritz, Cannes and Deauville, and a single line of news: 'Les agendas Hermès 1949 sont parus.'
- — Hermes Shop Front, 1960's - Film 90298. The Hermes Shop front in Paris in 1966. Hermes jewels. A jewellery collection modelled. Hermes fashion. Scarves and gloves. Fashion for 1967.
