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Origin and history

The Musée de la Nacre et de la Tableterie, located in Méru, Oise, Hautes-de-France, is housed in a former tablet factory built between 1857 and 1887. This industrial site, emblematic of the Industrial Revolution, was dedicated to the manufacture of buttons, mother-of-pearl objects, scales, bones or ivory. Méru, nicknamed "World capital of the mother-of-pearl button", experienced a golden age in the 19th century thanks to this activity, before its decline in the 20th century with the arrival of synthetic materials and the disappearance of traditional outlets.

As early as the 17th century, the farmers of the region practiced tabletry during the winter, making various objects (fans, cane cheeks, billiard balls, chess games) sold to Parisian merchants. In the 19th century, industrialisation amplified this production, with up to 3,856 tablekeepers recorded in 1851. The Dégremont factory, founded in 1859, symbolizes this blissful era: equipped with a steam machine, it employed more than 80 workers and produced buttons, chips, dice and serial accessories. The decline began in the 20th century, marked by strikes (1909, 1936) and competition for plastics.

The museum opened in 1999 after decades of aborted projects (from 1895 in the local press, relaunched in 1961 and then in the 1970s). Its creation has been carried out by local associations, such as Friends of the Museum of Mother-of-pearl, and institutions (Ecomusée des Pays de l'Oise, DRAC). Installed in the Dégremont factory — classified as a Historical Monument in 1994 — it preserves machines, tools, finished objects (buttons, fans, binoculars) and craftsmanship. An extension in 2010 added educational spaces and a hotel-restaurant (Hotel de la Tableterie).

The collections, collected since the 1970s, come from donations, acquisitions and deposits (MJC de Méru, District of the Sablons). Among the flagship pieces: a steam machine of 1902 still functional, a reconstructed dominotier workshop, and an ebony and mother-of-pearl pendulum created by the artisan Three Eggs (1870–1907). The museum plays a conservatory role, transmitting missing techniques via demonstrations and special orders.

The architecture of the building, typical of the factories of the North of France, combines bricks, full arch windows and a truncated fireplace. The renovation works (1994–1999) preserved this industrial heritage, while modernizing the spaces. Today, the museum attracts about 20,000 visitors annually, perpetuating the memory of a know-how that has marked Méru's economic and social identity.

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