Orfèvre du bain

A family history

It all started at the beginning of the 1970s in a Parisian workshop. Serge Volevatch believed that he could give a second lease of life to the old bathtubs he found at flea markets. He was taking a risk but customers looking for something different discovered his artistic flair and craftsmanship. These skills and passion were then passed on to his son.

Serge Volevatch lived several lives. After studying maths, law, and economics, he became a plumber and then a collector of old bathtubs which he restored before enhancing them with custom-made fittings. He had an adventuring spirit. Free-thinking and independent, he followed his instincts and pursued his passions for creation, craftsmanship, excellence, and uniqueness. These values were a permanent influence for him. By founding his Volevatch company, he wanted to establish the foundations of knowledge and know-how related to the bathroom sector, drawing inspiration from people’s needs, behaviors, and relationships to their bodies, all of which have constantly evolved over the decades. His craftsmanship focused on the technical aspects combined with an almost sociological approach to how his products would be used.
“My work specifically consisted of imagining, drawing, and creating a model which would link two unconnected pieces. A clear and logical approach to the aesthetics and quality of a sculpture”, he explained.
Added to this was the desire to perpetuate the 'made in France' concept, to involve local artists and craftsmen, neighbors, those living close to the Volevatch workshops in Tully, a village with around 600 inhabitants in the Somme region, not far from Tréport.

Nathalie, Serge e Igor Volevatch.

Giving meaning to an object used on a daily basis

Taking an existing object and renovating, adapting, shaping, and transforming it was the starting point of Volevatch’s culture and heritage. Never throw anything away. Make use of the parts. Understand the material. Find solutions and make them last. And then invent, create, and design. In addition to faucets, Volevatch provides everything a bathroom could need: from the bathtub to the towel rail, from the shower head to the mirror, without forgetting the wall hooks. Serge Volevatch passed this attention to detail on to his son Igor. As a sculptor, he too has a sense of design, of shape, of a hand-held object used on a daily basis.

Now the head of the family business, Igor Volevatch has never stopped striving for quality and for excellence combined with extreme precision. In Tully, we talk about metalware, making pieces to order, unique objects and number-limited series, pieces with an almost infinite lifespan because they can all be renovated. This apes the way in which Serge Volevatch, the founder of the company that still proudly bears his name, fell in love with vintage objects and repaired the irreparable in his original Parisian workshop.