PARIS -- Paris' last traditional bronze foundry and workshop, which for more than 100 years supplied French museums and foreign dignitaries with handmade statues, busts and clocks, is closing down, another loss of craftmanship for the French capital.

Years after most artisans shut shop and moved in search of cheaper rents in the suburbs, Chardon & Petit Fils remained on the edge of Paris' historic Marais district, where the family business has worked since 1878.

Now, they are seeking to sell off their collection of thousands of original 19th century sculptures, used as models for their reproductions, because they can no longer compete in a tough international economic climate.

"Craftsmanship is dying out. The market is dying day by day," said Jean-Paul Cassereau, 53, one of two brothers who run the business.

Workers carefully mold and carve bronze pieces in a large, brightly lit workshop behind the smart showroom of Chardon & Petit Fils.

Over the years, they have crafted sculptures of horses, hunting scenes and anonymous nobility, delicate parts for clocks, large panels for Middle Eastern palaces, and even replacements for the 15th century Gates of Paradise _ the gilded bronze doors of the Baptistery of San Giovanni in Florence, Italy.

The French presidential Elysee Palace and Paris City Hall have restricted their budgets and stopped orders of bronze statues and clocks for visiting dignitaries, such as former recipients Nelson Mandela and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

So have France's top museums, which used to buy bronze reproductions of original works by famed 19th century sculptors such as Antoine-Louis Barye and Pierre-Jules Mene.

Tourists also spend less money on such souvenirs, and "today, they're more likely to buy a postcard," Cassereau said.

Prices start at $42 for a small bronze figure and rise to more than $121,000 for a large monument.

Costs for French workers are high due to expensive labor charges, and they cannot compete with imitations made by cheaper workers from Poland to Syria.

"It is the strength of old Europe, it is ancestral knowledge that is disappearing," said bronze worker Candido Ribeiro Reis, who represents a trade group that promotes traditional crafts, the French Company for the Encouragement of Artistic Trades.

Over the past quarter-century, Chardon & Petit Fils has reduced its staff from 30 employees to nine, of which five are craftsmen. In coming months, they plan to tell the remaining craftsmen, some of whom have been with the company for more than 30 years, that business is over.

"Some of them worked with my great grandfather," said 49-year-old Thierry Cassereau. "It is going to be difficult."