Focus on JEAN DE LESPINASSE
Jean de Lespinasse (1896-1979). - Discovering a work
French 1950s ceramics are rich in artistic proposals.
Alongside today's coveted artist's ceramics, traditional earthenware manufacturers, such as the Elchinger factory in Alsace or the Breton factories in Quimper, renewed their artistic proposals. Numerous artists took the route of earthenware, and therefore of reproducibility of form, by magnifying the covers, either through enameling like Pol Chambost, or through decoration, like Jacques Blin or Marcel Guillot.
In the case of Jean de Lespinasse's factory in Nice's Cimiez district
in the Cimiez district of Nice, very few records have come down to us:
a sheet containing 4 drawings of chimerical birds, and a pencilled book.
The first pieces recorded date back to 1949, and here again, the factory's own shapes are used to create multiple designs, the variety of which is rethought as each piece is made.
One of the few surviving archives is the mythical book "Les poteries françaises" by François Poncetton and Georges Salles, published in 1928, which lists numerous pieces of Art Populaire, and was to inspire the 1950 ceramics revival, notably by Suzanne Ramié in Vallauris or Émile Tessier in Malicorne.
The book itself contains sketches modified by Jean de Lespinasse, demonstrating the very genesis of certain forms with renewed allure. From this point of view, and thanks to the wide variety of the collection on offer, Jean de Lespinasse's work is clearly identifiable.
The company Jean de Lespinasse founded with his wife Simone Dreyfus (1909-1989) under the name SOCFRA employed up to ten people. The ceramics produced were signed JdL and given a shape number. Over the years, the company produced a number of commercial catalogs featuring the models and decors it created, but we have no record of these to date.
The pieces were exhibited at trade shows such as the Foire de Lyon and the Salon des Ateliers d'Art in Paris. For his part, their son-in-law Jean Saguès (1933-1991) assisted the Lespinasse couple mainly in sales.
The workshop's creative energies were focused on bold shapes, embellished with decorations that ranged from enameled figures to geometric friezes in scarification or bas-relief. The contribution of decorator Sylvie Fournier, active from 1956 to 1967, gave rise to rare works featuring refined decorations of figures in architectural settings.
The company ceased operations around 1980 following the death of Jean de Lespinasse.
We present a collection assembled over more than twenty years of works found in the widest range of geographical locations, comprising more than 400 pieces. This first "Focus on Jean de Lespinasse" discovery sale will enable you to discover the richness of these creations from an earthenware factory that only operated for around thirty years. This sale, which provides a first glimpse of the factory's creativity, will be followed in a few weeks' time by a second sale offering an even wider panorama.