Jan van Nouhuys, world renowned silversmith who was
teaching in School in Hoven University in Netherlands,
was invited by Mr. Ravi Chawla to set up a workshop
for utility silver in India. Jan would make
the designs and train Indian silversmiths to make
world class silverware. Jan accepted the assignment
and asked colleague Arjen Lucas to join him in India.
A book written by Marc Couwenbergh, quotes
“Jan and the collaboration with Ravissant
was a resounding success.
In no time, everything they made was handout to
customers in India and in Europe”.
The unique design of silver cutlery using
black smithing technique as shown in the picture
as is made from one piece of silver with no
joints or soldering. This cultlery was bought
by the CEO of Saks 5th Avenue New York,
Mr. P. R. S Oberoi, Chairman of Oberoi group of
Hotels and some of the most distinguished
people across the world.
In 2005 and 2006, Simone came on board to design, supervise
and train the Ravissant team in the magic of the hammer.
She began with small items such as spectacle cases and then
moved to her signature collection of shallow silverbowls.
She later made her international award-winning dishes.
Fortunately Ravissant found Alistair Mccallum from England, a Mokume Gane specialist, Ravi Chawla was fascinated to see pictures and read
about the techiques of Mokume Gane, after much research he found Alistair Mccullum who specilized in Mokume Gane and Alister
accepted the invitation of Ravi Chawla and came to Delhi and made a collection of Mokume Gane products
and taught the techniques to specialist silversmiths of Ravissant in their workshop in India.
This technique has been patented by Ravissant and probably is the only company in the world who continue that
make products by using Mokume Gane techniques.
Ravi’s frequent visits to Italy brought him in contract with a group of Interior designers
and he had them craft a collection of silver centre pieces for luxury homes.
Ravi met Ralf Auerbach at the Frankfurt Fair in 2001, where Ravissant exhibited it’s
Silver collection alongside other leading brands such as Christofle, Rosenthal and Hermès.
Ralf told Ravi about his own silver workshop, where he produced handmade pieces for
churches as well as for individual European customers. He had also worked for the Danish
brand Georg Jensen. Grasping Ralf’s talent and can-do attitude, Ravi brought him on board.
The silver collections feature works by different designers, each with
an individual approach, yet united by a dedication to quality.
