Ciboure Vase 1925 Vilotte Period

Rare Art Deco period Ciboure bursiform vase from the Etienne Vilotte period (1881-1957) signed with the stamp "VE Ciboure" depicting a regionalist decoration with four Basque pelota players in relief on a black background decorated with geometric friezes, black interior, creation attributed to Jean Léon around 1925. Very good original condition, dimensions: 23 cm high X 17 cm wide. Note that this specific model is listed in the book "La Poterie de Ciboure 1919-1945" by Séverine Berger illustration on page 71 it bears the reference 100 of the photograph by Etienne Vilotte, bottom left. The Ciboure pottery was founded in Saint Jean de Luz in 1919 by the combined talents of Étienne Vilotte (1881-1957), a trained cabinetmaker, Louis Benjamin Floutier (1882-1936), a painter who graduated from the Parisian Beaux-Arts, and Edgard Marcel Lucat (1883-1953), known as Lukas the potter turner. The move to the Basque Country was not by chance; the region contains significant deposits of clay, in particular a red earth from the tile factory near Biarritz, which gave a beautiful pinkish beige color to their stoneware. The Ciboure pottery imposed and affirmed its style with an Art Deco and neo-Greek iconography mixing the influence of Basque traditions. These creations were very quickly successful, forcing the admiration of the Bulletin of the Society of Sciences, Letters and Arts of Bayonne in 1921. In this laudatory article, we also learn that Lucat was inspired by the memory of archaeological excavations carried out in Salonika, the city where he was stationed in 1916. More obviously, neo-Greek asserts itself as a widespread trend among creators at the beginning of the century, from Armand-Albert Rateau to André Metthey. For our three ceramists, the absolute reference will be the painting and red and black decorations of the 5th century BC, a golden age marked by the search for ideal proportions and rhythm. The shape of the pieces is also inspired by ancient typology, generating among other things alabasters, aryballos or pyxis, followed after 1922 by more imposing artifacts such as amphorae or stamnos. With the flourishing of Art Deco in the 1920s, motifs were freed from ancient patterns, and new decorators such as Jean Léon and Pierre Almès were present. The exhibition presents an exceptional lébès with naked figures against a forest background, from an early date, probably 1921-1922; these figures with great freedom of line are clearly marked by knowledge of contemporary research. The virtuoso art of the latter is illustrated by several pieces. At the same time, the entire ornamental movement emerged, borrowing its themes from the Basque tradition, while the large villas built on the coast did not hesitate to take up elements of the ancestral home. The Ciboure art workshop also came into fashion and, little by little, regionalist decorations replaced neo-Greek compositions. A sign of the times, this new vein constituted the majority of the production. The transition was smooth, the Basque scenes now occupy the exact location of the previous ones, between antique borders made of geometric patterns in the manner of metopes. By this process, the Basque characters, although captured in their most common activities, gain a monumental dimension worthy of the great figures of Antiquity.