Moscow's first-ever "boutique street" is gaining momentum with a new opening. French company Baccarat, the world's oldest glassware producer, whose products are widely renowned throughout the world for their class and chic, opened its boutique on Tretyakovsky Proyezd on Oct. 30.

The company's history began in 1764, when French King Louis XV granted the Bishop of Metz permission to establish a glassworks in Baccarat, some 400 km east of Paris.

By the late 19th century, the number of orders coming from the Russian imperial court and aristocratic families had grown to such proportions that Baccarat had to launch a full-cycle continuous-operation oven, dubbed "the Russian oven." Mule-carts, heavily loadedwith candlesticks, wineglasses, vases and statuettes made by French craftsmen, frequently traveled along the roads from France to Russia.

"Baccarat succeeded where Napoleon failed – it conquered Russia," said Baccarat President Ann-Klere Tettanger. "Unlike Napoleon, who relied on the force of his military, Baccarat placed its stakes on the force of beauty embodied in fragile crystal forms."

To celebrate the boutique's opening, the company held a unique one-day exhibition of the "Tsar" and "Tsarina" crystal candelabras created by Baccarat on the personal order of Russia's last tsar, Nicholas II.