Wrought Iron Mirror From The Marolles Workshop 1950/1959

Wrought iron mirror from the Atelier de Marolles Jean Touret 1950/1959 featuring a grid of small roosters, geese, pigs, camels and elephants, framing the mirror, with two loop handles. The original iron finish has a beautiful patina of age, artisanal mirror, brutalist and animal trends, with a metal frame whose hammered parts have been manually welded, representing a magnificent and original bestiary, gilded metal highlight signifying the eyes of the animals. Mirror from a private collection of 20th century folk art, some superficial oxidation points giving it a beautiful patina. Dimensions: Total height: 80 cm / without hooks: 76 cm Width: 60.6 cm Depth: 3 cm Mirror receptacle frame: 28 cm x 43.5 cm Visible mirror: 24.50 cm x 40.10 cm 1950: Les Artisans de Marolles Jean Touret, born in 1916 in Mayenne, was destined for a career in insurance. Taken prisoner at the start of the war, he was sent to southern Germany, in the wooded mountains of the Herzgebirge. There he shared the rustic life of the peasants, learned the harshness of nature, as a lumberjack he discovered trees, wood, which he learned to evaluate, cut, and cart. Back in France, he felt unable to reintegrate the petty bourgeois world as he had known it before the war. He had to give a broader meaning to his life. Jean Touret deplores the general public's taste for standardized furniture, manufactured from industrial materials, forgetting traditional know-how, and taking work away from local craftsmen. He decides to create an association for the production of furniture and decorative objects with the village craftsmen by combining the know-how: a cabinetmaker, an ironworker, a basket maker and later a ceramist.