Prix Liliane Bettencourt 2026: A Four-Kilo Chair Made for Everyday Use
Louis Monier and Edgar Jayet have won the Dialogues prize of the 2026 Prix Liliane Bettencourt pour l’Intelligence de la Main for Meslée, a four-kilo ash chair. The support is meant to pay for a digital machine and a small series sold directly to customers.
Louis Monier and Edgar Jayet won the Dialogues prize of the 2026 Prix Liliane Bettencourt pour l’Intelligence de la Main with Meslée, a four-kilo ash chair that they plan to make in a small series and sell directly. The prize was presented in Paris on 7 October. Laurence des Cars, who chaired the jury, said it was the first time chair-making had been rewarded. She called it a craft at risk of dying out.
● In brief
The chair. Meslée’s curved back rails and posts were steam-bent at 100°C, and its legs are laminated. The solid parts of the back were cut on a digital machine to bring out the “flames” in the grain.
The makers. Monier, born in 1989, trained at École Boulle and became a Meilleur Ouvrier de France. He runs a workshop of seven in Paris. Jayet, born in 1997, studied at École Camondo. In 2025 he redesigned a room at the Villa Médicis in Rome.
The money. Each of the three prizes carries €50,000, which Monier and Jayet share equally. The Fondation Bettencourt Schueller adds up to €150,000 for their project.
The other winners. Sébastien Desplat, an intaglio printer, won Talents d’exception for Dans les bois, a folding book drawn by Fanette Mellier. He made the washi in Kyoto and printed by hand in moku hanga, work that began at Villa Kujoyama. The Parcours prize went to Réseau Excellence EPV, the association of France’s Entreprises du Patrimoine Vivant, a state label held by 1,272 companies.
● Why it matters
The jury chose a chair for daily life. Des Cars described Meslée as functional by nature, a chair that could one day stand in homes and public buildings.
The money is meant to turn a prototype into production. Monier wants a digital machine to make his workshop more precise and competitive. He plans to build the chair in small series. Jayet wants to sell it without intermediaries and to make the work more accessible. The series remains a plan, with price and edition size still open.
Crafts tied to the luxury industry are doing well, des Cars said. Their success hides other trades that are struggling, some close to disappearing. A chair-maker with a digital machine, selling direct, shows one way forward. La Vaisselle des Chefs is finding another, giving the plates of France’s great restaurants new tables. Applications for the 2027 Talents d’exception and Dialogues prizes close on 10 March.
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Sources
- Fondation Bettencourt Schueller, press release, Prix Liliane Bettencourt pour l’Intelligence de la Main 2026: fondationbs.org
- Fondation Bettencourt Schueller, press kit 2026: fondationbs.org
- Fondation Bettencourt Schueller, Louis Monier and Edgar Jayet: fondationbs.org
- The Art Newspaper (French edition), the 2026 winners, 8 October 2026: artnewspaper.fr
- So Home, Prix Bettencourt 2026, 21 October 2026: sohome.fr
- Say Who, the 2026 ceremony in Paris: saywhomedia.com