Mado Jolain – a ceramist for all seasons This month, we couldn’t resist featuring this uncommonly stylish 1950s vase, which is currently available to buy. With its organic shape, elegant proportions and swirly, bubbly decor, it has pretty much all you could ask for in a vase by the French ceramist, Mado Jolain. The early…
Jean de Lespinasse – from ‘industrial’ to desirable
Today, Jean de Lespinasse pottery is sought after by private collectors and interior designers. Quite the turnround for a discreet mid century studio dismissed in its day as ‘industrial’….
Nothing says French chic more than a silk scarf. This month, we dive into the frivolous, floaty, feminine world of the vintage French designer square.
Close-up on Jacques Pouchain, Atelier Dieulefit Buy now This month, the spotlight is on mid century French ceramist, Jacques Pouchain (1925-2015). His pottery could be functional and abstract, figurative and playful – but it was always modern. And so it feels, still, especially pieces from his personal production of the 1960s and 1970s. This tall…
The Salon des Arts Ménagers – SAM for short – was France’s own “Ideal Homes” Exhibition. From 1926 to 1983, with a gap during WWII, it influenced popular French home design and aspirations like no other event.
The French pottery Verceram perfectly captured mid century style in France. With its bold contrasts and groovy shapes, it might have come from another universe. When the company closed in 1971, it left behind an amazing legacy of mid century designs… and some questions.
French Limoges porcelain gets the Loewy look A Bernardaud Ariès coffee cup designed by Raymond Loewy. It’s 1967, and in Limoges a small revolution is afoot, led by Pierre Bernardaud, director of Bernardaud porcelain, and Raymond Loewy, the father of industrial design. Bernardaud, Limoges specialised in high quality porcelain tableware which sold in France and…
Few items sum up French mid-century style better than this beautiful hand-thrown pottery vase by Accolay. In the 1950s and 60s, a stop-off at the Accolay pottery studio was a ritual for Parisians driving down south to spend summer on the south coast of France.
You’re never too young or too old to be fascinated by France’s transatlantic ocean liners. The luxury, the glamour, the style, the spirit of adventure or the technical prowess… there’s something to seduce everyone.
In the last century, the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (also known as The French Line) operated some of the finest passenger liners in history. Among them, the Normandie and the France were legends for their fabulous decor, the last word in French decorative arts.