France · Stone craft; Ecclesiastical sculpture; Norman heritage
Sculpture des Calvaires Normands
Figural carving in Caen limestone — an oolitic limestone so prized that William I shipped it to England for the Tower of London and Canterbury Cathedral after 1066. Roadside calvary Christ figures are the most endangered specialization within Norman stonework.
Risk level: Endangered · Not listed
The tradition of the Paris haute couture embroidery house — the maison de broderie that maintains archives of historical stitch techniques and materials; develops new embroidery for each couture season; and trains the brodeurs who execute…
The making of needle lace in the Point de France tradition — the French royal lace established by Colbert in 1665 to replace Venetian lace imports and sustain the French state finances.
The making of fine leather gloves in the Paris tradition — cut from peau de chevreau (kid leather) or peau de porc (pigskin) in a single piece per hand, stretched over a wooden glove form, and hand-sewn with a specific saddle stitch.
The making of luxury hats (chapeaux de Paris) — specifically the haute couture millinery tradition of the modiste, who creates made-to-order hats using blocked felt or straw blocked to wooden hat forms (formier), wired and draped fabrics,…
The making of luxury buttons for haute couture — from natural materials (corne de bélier — ram's horn; galalithe — milk protein plastic from the early 20th century; mother-of-pearl; wood) and from cast metal, enamel, and fabric-covered…
The making of crystal perfume flacons — cut crystal and mold-blown crystal bottles for the major Paris perfume houses (Guerlain; Chanel; Dior; Hermès).
Shilpakar is the hereditary Newar stone carving caste producing the sandstone and schist reliefs of Kathmandu Valley temples, most famously at Changu Narayan (UNESCO, 5th century CE).
The construction of the traditional Galician granite bread oven (forno de pan or forno de pedra) — the communal stone oven that was the center of every Galician village life and is the most socially important craft structure in the…
A supplement record documenting the construction and restoration techniques of the schist (xisto) historic villages of central Portugal — including Sortelha, one of the Aldeias Históricas de Portugal, where buildings are constructed…
Emboscada, founded in 1740 by governor Rafael de la Moneda as San Agustín de la Emboscada and formally known today as 'Ciudad de la Piedra' (City of Stone), has built its craft identity directly on its own quarries, where the majority of…
The lapidary technique of cutting ametrine — a naturally bicolor quartz combining amethyst (purple) and citrine (yellow) within a single crystal — sourced almost exclusively from Bolivia's Anahí mine, the world's only significant…
The hand-digging, shaft-mining, and grading of tanzanite -- the violet-blue variety of the mineral zoisite -- by artisanal miners of Merelani, a narrow strip of land roughly seven by two kilometers in the Manyara Region of northern…