What would Coca-Cola be without its bottle ? The bottle was designed by Alexander Samuel in 1915 as the result of a competition to create“ a bottle so distinct that you would recognize it in the dark”. Its shape, called “contour” was inspired by the cocoa bean, but its celebrity stems from its likeness to a female silhouette. From that time the Coca-Cola bottle has represented an stylish woman wearing a sheath dress that enhances her curves. Now it can be found all over the world.

As a school-boy Guy Degrenne appeared more interested in drawing cutlery on his note book than in listening to his teachers. His headmaster said : “My poor Degrenne, that’s not the right way to be successful in life”. For decades, this has served him as an advertisement. Guy Degrenne took classic designs of the great Parisian silversmiths and manufactured them in solid stainless steel. He made elegant, reliable and modern cutlery for the middle class and so contributed to making high quality table cutlery widely available.

The working principle of the ballpoint pen was discovered by a Hungarian journalist named Joseph Ladislav Biro (1899-1985).  He devised the use of a fast-drying ink, similar to that used for printing newspapers.  After watching children playing marbles in a puddle, he had the idea of using a tiny ball to take up ink from a reservoir and deposit it on the paper. Biro sold his patent to Marcel Bich, a Frenchman.  In 1952, the latter started industrial production of pens with a transparent reservoir and a colourfed cap.   The Bic pen was born.

Franck Dujoux constantly builds bridges between his various activities : he would merge graphic design with photography and various forms of art related to urban and country environment. For many years he participated in collective exhibitions with an outlandish and critical gaze on our surroundings. In 2007, he imagined in collaboration with Michel Kowalski as curator, “ The Monobloc Project ” a roaming concept which pays tribute to the modest white plastic chair, a forgotten icon of design.

Utilitarian re-use does not keep the original function of objects. Fragments are selected : Parts of the belly (of amphorae) were used for pipework or underfloor space, handles for pestles, and the feet were cut into rounds and served as stoppers. Such an attitude is not exclusive to antiquity. It has existed all over the world from time immemorial. The photographic work of Franck Dujoux and Olivier Foulon draws our attention to this phenomenon, observable today in the Burgundy countryside

A fibula – whose latest avatar is a safety pin – is a device for fastening clothing. It appeared around 1000BC. Mass production was evidenced by the discovery of moulds for casting clusters of fibulae. In the first century, fibulae from Nauheim (Moselle) were popular from the Mediterranean to the Rhine Valley. They were common also on the west coast and in England. Conversely, some fibulae were manufactured in a specific workshop with a limited local selling area. They bear witness to a regional culture.  

Oil lamps, originally coming from Italy or from Africa, with or without decoration, appealed to Gallic people. They were readily copied in the workshops of Narbonne, Rhone valley and Allier valley. Lamps were made with a two-part mould, each one originating either from an archetype or from an existing lamp, the holes of which had been previously blocked (over moulding). Moulding and over moulding made it possible to reproduce models and makers' marks of Mediterranean workshops ; we do not know if such copies were sold as imitations or counterfeits.

Terra-cotta/ceramic figurines used to be placed on family altars, at home.  They would also accompany a deceased in his grave. Many deities were represented : Venus and mother goddesses were the most popular; Risus (a laughing person), busts of children or animals could be found as well. Mass production by moulding from a model, called archetype, made it possible to disseminate such items on a large scale. Such standardized terra-cotta/ceramic figurines were easy to identify and cheaper than bronze statuettes. They bear testimony to the religion practised by the people.