If your morning cup of coffee is as precious as gold to you, then you’re in luck as Royal Paris has just created an extravagant coffee maker handcrafted in 24 carat gold with Baccarat crystal and semi-precious stone of black obsidian, azurite or malachite base. Aptly named Royal Coffee Maker, the siphon coffee brewer is crafted as a replica of the balance siphon coffee maker used by royalty to prepare the precious brew in the 1800s; the King of Hungary was said to have loved to surprise guests with the contraption at his royal banquets. Though the process is complex, the resulting brew is highly prized for its clarity, fragrant aroma and complexity of flavours as the aromatic oils cannot escape the vacuum chambers.
For the modern day incarnate of this majestic coffee maker, it is French artist Jean-Luc Rieutort – renowned for his chiselling work on objet d’art – who brings it to life. Rieutort, along with a team of sculptors, metallurgists and engineers spent a total of 50 hours to carve, decorate and assemble the coffee maker. For a personalised touch, the names of loved ones or the family crest can be engraved into the decorations of the luxurious coffee maker. With such painstaking effort going into creating each piece, it comes as no surprise that only eight Royal Coffee Makers are produced each month.
FUN FACT: Parts like the gargoyle spigot, fish key, counter weight, oak leaves and finials are made by casting using the lost-wax casting method or cire perdue in French. This method usually used for small parts and jewellery is a process to create a duplicate metal form using a cast from the original figure.
The Royal Coffee Maker comes in 24 carat gold, copper or silver and comes with a matching custom made coffee scoop. Available exclusively via www.royalcoffeemaker.com, it retails between GBP 8,000 and GBP 15,000.
