Ornamental casting acquired its titles of nobility with Antoine Durenne (1822-1895). Trained at the Ecole Centrale and the Beaux-Arts de Paris, the art founder surrounded himself with a large number of genius sculptors such as Auguste Bartholdi, Ernest-Eugène Hiolle or Hector Guimard. His casting art shown at the World Fairs in London (1862) and Vienna (1873) made him known. At the Paris World’s Fair in 1889, Antoine Durenne was showered with awards. His foundry supplied part of the statues for the Trocadero waterfall and the fountain of the Champ-de-Mars (1878). From 1896 to 1900, he created all the decorative castings for the Alexandre-III bridge in Paris.