A century of light.

Georges-Léon Rispal was born into an Auvergne family that had moved to Paris, like so many "bougnats" who came to seek work in the winter before ending up as bistro owners. But the young man, passionate about wood carving, refused this life. At 23, against his family's wishes, he founded his own lighting company.

The first pieces are classic: turned wooden bases fitted with electrical components. Nothing yet hints at the boldness of the decades to
come.

The company is growing rapidly. Based on Rue de Charonne in the 11th arrondissement, it reaches its peak in the 1950s: more than 5,000 m² of workshops and showrooms, around 150 employees. It is during this period that François Rispal, the founder's son, takes over the design studio.

A family trip to Scandinavia and the discovery of Alvar Aalto's furniture revolutionize his view of modernity.

This new momentum gives birth to the Formes Nouvelles catalogue: radically modern silhouettes for the time, the Praying Mantis, the Giraffe, the Double Boomerang, designed to be customized, with different wood species and lampshades. In the 1960s, Rispal exports as far as the United States.

But Italian competition and the arrival of plastics, which allowed for shapes previously impossible to achieve in wood, precipitate the company's decline in the 1970s. Rispal does not make this transition, and the silhouettes in the Formes Nouvelles catalog, once so modern, begin to look dated.

With no buyer, operations cease in 1982. The factory and showroom on rue de Charonne are demolished to make way for a real estate development. This operation does not merely destroy buildings: all the plans, manufacturing documents, tooling, and molds are lost—in short, all the expertise of the Maison Rispal disappears without a trace.

Everything starts over in 2013. A designer passionate about the lines of the 50s and 60s, those of Serge Mouille in particular, Douglas Mont owns a vintage Mante Religieuse. The brand having fallen into the public domain, he decides to re-file it with the INPI.

But owning a name does not give you the right to reproduce its models: a real investigation begins, up to 350 kilos of archives repatriated from Compiègne, without success.

Despite everything, Douglas Mont decides to rebuild the lamp. The original base, which was unstable, is redesigned: faithful to the original spirit, compliant with current standards. The pleated cellulose acetate lampshade remains, the technique for which had disappeared with the factory. It will take three years of experimental research to rediscover it in 2017—a technique that Douglas Mont chooses, as Georges-Léon Rispal did in his time, never to patent.

In 2018, he officially relaunches the brand alongside Clément Bergès.

Two years later, in December 2020, a bailiff's letter changes everything: an heiress exists. It is Georgette Rispal, daughter of Georges-Léon and sister of François, who became an opera singer and accidentally discovers that her father's company has come back to life.

Upon his death, Douglas Mont and Clément Bergès become beneficiaries of the intellectual property rights to the Rispal drawings.

Since no pieces from that era were ever signed with a person's name, Douglas Mont now enjoys a rare legitimacy: that of developing these designs without betraying their essence. This continuity also gives rise to new creations, such as the Phasme table lamp, a direct descendant of the Mante Religieuse.

Just as in the days of the rue de Charonne, each light fixture can be personalized, with six wood types and five metal or cable finishes, and continues to be made in France, drawing on the craftsmanship the house had nearly lost.

A century after Georges-Léon Rispal, the house continues to write its history, without nostalgia, with the same exacting standards.