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"HERITAGE x [R]EVOLUTION"
Small is beautiful: a school where each person matters
Being active in a niche market by offering highly specific and in-person courses for 8 students at the utmost, the school is one of the most specialized colleges in the world. Even so, the small-scale campus located in the Ardennes countryside, provides the infrastructure expected from an institution of higher education.
Tribute to Nicolas Gilbert, royal imperial purveyor
The
Ecole des Malletiers Nicolas Gilbert,
based in
The blazon of Charles V, with the Order of the Golden Fleece
For example, in 1529-1530 the Nicolas Gilbert and Augustin De Hofstadt ateliers together produced some 70 luggage items for the emperor, of which 50 leather leather trunks for the casing of the emperor's tapestries. During travels the carpets were put unto the greens where the entire imperial party and court would have what we nowadays call pick-nicks, by all means luxury ones.
Jean-Pierre Bal, the founder of the present-day malletier school, finds the 1530s decade remarkably interesting, and full of amazing coincidences. To name just one, during that time-span there also was a medieval iron furnace and steel mill located precisely where the Ecole's main atelier now stands. "At the EdM campus park the soil still holds countless number of smelting slag and dross pellets of the 16th century. One day I will use some in a malletier artwork".
Follow M. Bal on instagram @doublanse.
In the 2000s Monsieur Bal revived the malletier profession in Belgium where the trade had disappeared some sixty years ago. As years went by he invested thousands of leisure hours in bibliographical research and in mastering trunk-making techniques. He also uncovered the 19th and early 20th centuries' evolution of the major trunkmakers in Brussels, while creating the world's most unique museum-collection of Belgian antique travel trunks.
His "Heritage x [R]evolution" slogan
And a malletier school in France...
The school's name contains the plural word "des", owing to the fact that there is a second malletier homage school: Jean Paré. Having built further on his bi-national schools' concept, M. Bal opened the French Ecole Jean PARÉ. A contemporary of Nicolas Gilbert, Jean had an atelier in Paris, at the Rue de la Huchette and on the Pont Saint Michel (Notre Dame cathedral area). He was the brother of the Ambroise Paré, the famous surgeon of French Kings. Under the aegis of OGISPES, the Mosane non-profit organisation based in Charleville-Mezieres, France and Liege, Belgium, historical research took place from 2017 to 2019, focusing on Laval (re. Bourg Hersent, birthplace of most Paré family members) and Paris. >> more: France website
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The
Ecole des Malletiers, a genuine living heritage, became a reality in 2018
-
the European Year for Cultural Heritage. In sum, when M. Bal had gathered
in Europe and around the world his precious documentation about the
profession, the Conservatoire Belmal started 10 years earlier
emerged from his hard work by becoming the contemporary Ecole: an
international institution of higher education located in the Durbuy - Manhay area
of Belgium.