It is currently one of the four major Parisian establishments in the teaching of art methods (together with Boulle, the École supérieure des arts appliqués Duperré and the École Estienne).
They bought majolica and frames in Venice, and a Roman bust from an Italian dealer; Whistler and Charles Méryon prints, a boulle inkstand, mahogany liquor case, Persian rugs and a William Morris tapestry based on Walter Crane's The Goose Girl in London; and in Paris a Venetian mirror, Antoine-Louis Barye bronzes, Japanese prints and three Monets from leading art dealers Boussoud, Valadon.
In fact, he had been taken prisoner by the Japanese and remained a prisoner of war at the Changi Prison until 1945, working on the construction of the Burma Railway which crossed Thailand, a feat that inspired the Pierre Boulle book 'Bridge Over the River Kwai', and the film adaptation by David Lean.