BESPOKE CASES · PARIS
Case-making House for Instruments & Heritage
Design · Protect · Preserve
BESPOKE CASES · PARIS
A rare object always raises a question no one has solved before: a shape, a balance, a fragility that belongs to it alone. Every creation tells the story of that journey – understanding, reasoning, building.
One-of-a-kind pieces · Designed and crafted in Paris
The Kobza – One-of-a-Kind Piece
Victor never begins by making a case. He begins by understanding: observing the object, tracing its forms, building around them, adjusting, protecting.
The kobza—a traditional lute with a deep body that fit no existing form—reveals this entire process, from the first pencil line to the final stitch.
The same approach for thirty years.
I – The Drawing
Everything begins with a line, taken directly from the instrument itself.
II – The Structure
The wood is bent, glued and held in place until the form takes shape.
III – The Covering
The bare shell disappears beneath the material, fold after fold.
IV — The Instrument
Finally, at home.
« The case is born from the instrument. Never before it. »
01
The Clavicytherium
The singular silhouette of this Renaissance instrument, horizontal keyboard, vertically standing body, escaped every existing solution. It had to be understood before it could be enclosed.
The case was therefore developed from the instrument’s own axes, tensions and points of balance. The structure follows its architecture rather than constraining it, until, when closed, it becomes an enigmatic sculpture whose secret is revealed only by the historical engraving.
The 16th-century engraving – and its contemporary response
02
Glass lives through light and transparency – yet protection often means concealment. For MusVerre in Sars-Poteries, the challenge was to create a structure capable of transporting fragile pieces while allowing them to remain visible, observed and understood.
The case opens like a triptych, revealing eighteen drawers, each sculpted around the object it holds. It travels from classroom to classroom: in the hands of the museum’s educators, it introduces children to the materiality of glass, protecting and transmitting knowledge in the same gesture.
03
Any object destined to travel is exposed to vibration, impact, changes in load and repeated handling. The kora, with its fragile calabash body, sculpted neck and tensioned strings, allowed no room for approximation during international transport.
The kora in place – every support sculpted to its exact dimensions
Time had weakened the structure: torn linings, fractured wood, oxidised fittings. Yet this antique case had become inseparable from the instrument it had protected for more than a century, to replace it would have meant erasing part of its history.
The restoration was carried out with restraint: strengthening the structure, replacing what no longer provided protection, stabilising the materials, and preserving the patina, the proportions, even the patterned paper discovered beneath the linings, a silent witness to another century.
After – protection restored, memory preserved
A case that continues to fulfil its purpose, without denying the history it carries.
Tell us about the object, its requirements, its journey, and what must be preserved.