Pair Of Glazed Ceramic Vases, Accolay, France, Circa 1950

Pair of glazed ceramic vases with brown “scale” decoration on a white background.
The interior of the vases has a turquoise-blue glaze. Probably a work of Accolay, but the signature is difficult to read.
Height:  23 cm (9 inches)
Diameter: 13 cm (5.12 inches)

Story

Accolay Pottery

The term Poterie d’Accolay refers to the production of a community of potters based in the village of Accolay, in the Yonne department. This production center was created by four former students of Alexandre Kostanda (a renowned ceramist born on December 24, 1921 in Poland and died on November 19, 2007 in Vallauris).
Active from 1945 to 1989, this community of potters is distinguished by its great technical inventiveness and extremely abundant production. It exploits the proximity of the Nationale 6 by investing in service stations to make them permanent exhibition spaces on the migration axis of Parisian tourists. The exhibition buildings, inspired by the constructions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans circuit, become the obligatory stopover for vacationers in transit. This form of marketing continued at the entrance to the village of Vermenton (in the Yonne) until the factory closed in 1989. However, the creation of the Lyon motorway had diverted the flow of tourists for several years.
The potters of Accolay were legally structured under the name « Créations et Expositions de Poteries d’Art Modernes » (CEPAM) on 25 December 1964.

All Accolay pottery bears a hollow signature, sometimes accompanied by a coat of arms and, for some pieces, the potter’s initials. The oldest pieces sometimes have a double A (homophone for « A Collés »).