Biography

François-Pierre Leglas-Maurice was born in Nantes on January 9, 1821. He held a number of prestigious positions in the city:
Councillor, vice-president and president of the Nantes industrial tribunal (Prud’hommes) from 1855 to 1888, City councilor from 1860 to 1871, Member of the Chamber of Commerce from 1886 to 1895.

At the 1861 national exhibition in Nantes, Leglas-Maurice explained the operation of his factory to the jury. This description provides an interesting insight into how a factory operated at the time, and the principles that governed it.

In addition to his exhibition, Leglas-Maurice designed the entire Galerie de l’Impératrice. His work was rented by the municipality until the end of the event to furnish various buildings, including an anteroom, the secretariat, the secretary’s study, Mr. Arnous-Rivière’s office, the committee room, the jury room, the fine arts building, and certain rooms for the horticultural garden. His services were also retained for the creation of various elements such as the ornaments and ornaments used to embellish the various festivities, for the horses in the cavalcade for example.

Much later, Leglas-Maurice was to make a name for itself with decor and fittings for the liners built at the Penhoët shipyard (a former shipyard that merged in 1955 with Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire to form Chantiers de l’Atlantique in Saint-Nazaire), notably the Normandie.

The company went on to win a number of prestigious awards:
Gold medal at the Paris World’s Fair 1878
Member of the jury for the Paris World’s Fair 1889
Grand Prix de Paris 1900
Milan Grand Prix 1907
Grand prix de Bordeaux 1908
Brussels Grand Prix 1911

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