This footed vase shows Raoul Lachenal still indebted to the turn of the century style of his celebrated father, Edmond. Indeed, the most obvious precedent for the faux bronze mount is Edmond’s métallocéramiques, from 1901. These experimental fusions of ceramics and metal mounts, accomplished by electrodeposit, featured relatively simple ceramic body forms embellished with melded metal mounts in a flowing linear style. Raoul’s individuality emerges, however, in the dripping blue glaze overflowing its “mount” and pooling near the foot. Raoul’s adventurous approach to glazes eventually exceeded that of Edmond, showing the son’s willingness to push against the boundaries of what he’d learned in his father’s workshop.

For an excellent discussion of Edmond Lachenal's métallo-céramiques see Eidelberg, Martin, “A Dynasty of French Ceramists,” in Edmond Lachenal & His Legacy (New York: Jason Jacques Gallery Press, 2007), [32]-33.

Provenance
Patricia Monjaret and Marc Ducret, France

-Description by Claire Cass