Musée de la Nacre et de la Tabletterie in Méru Showcases Precious Shell Art

The Musée de la Nacre et de la Tabletterie in Méru, Oise, is the focus of a summer series by Beaux Arts highlighting France's most unusual museums. Located 50 kilometers north of Paris, the museum is housed in a former red-brick factory and preserves the art of tabletterie, the craft of transforming shells from Australia, Japan, and Tahiti into buttons, dominoes, dice, rosaries, boxes, and other precious accessories. At the turn of the 20th century, Méru was known as the 'world capital of mother-of-pearl.' The museum was established in 1999 in the former Degrémont factories, built in 1857 and now listed as a historic monument. Its collection includes delicate objects such as dance cards, opera glasses, and a 1900 fan in tortoiseshell and mother-of-pearl, 'Flore et le berger,' from the Hoguet collection. In 2023, the museum acquired 20,000 pieces from the Musée-atelier de l'Éventail Hoguet in Paris, preventing their dispersal. Visitors can see a working steam-powered button factory and a small dominoterie workshop. The museum recently received the Prix Liliane Bettencourt pour l'intelligence de la main from the Fondation Bettencourt-Schueller, which includes up to 100,000 euros over three years for expansion and a 50,000 euro prize to continue its mission.