étienne Vilotte (1881-1957) & Ciboure, Antique Animal Decor Jug, 20th

Stoneware jug with a pyriform shape, detached side handle, decoration of a rotating frieze of animals in the antique style, signed below VE Ciboure for Etienne Vilotte. 20th century. Ciboure is a town in Nouvelle Aquitaine located in the Pyrénées Atlantiques. A pottery was active there from 1919 to 1995. The pottery building was installed in a former whaling cellar on the banks of the Nivelle in the current Golf district. The main building, built in 1930, was transformed in 1997. Only the store, on the ground floor, remained in its original state. It has since been occupied by various economic activities, from 2016 to 2019 by a publishing house, La Cheminante. The latter perpetuated, in turn, the cultural activity of Ciboure that Jean-François Larralde, former Curator of the Guéthary Museum, already sang about in 1995: “Thus it was taken over in December 2019 by a couple of Basque artisans, who have set up a framing workshop there and exhibit and sell Ciboure potteries, folk art and Basque paintings, in an artistic and eclectic spirit. Ciboure today still remains this hive in the shape of a hill inspired by artists as different as possible. » The history of pottery It was active from 1919 to 1995. We can distinguish four periods: 1919-1922: Louis Floutier, Étienne Vilotte and Edgard Lucat. 1922-1945: Étienne and Elise Vilotte 1945-1977: Rodolphe and Suzanne Fischer 1977-1995: Max and Carmen Fischer At the end of the 1914-18 war, a painter, Louis Floutier (1882-1936) with Luzian ties, his brother-in-law, a cabinetmaker Étienne Vilotte (1881-1957) and a turner Marcel Lucat] (1883-1953), decided to launch into pottery. The Vilotte couple having the necessary financial resources, the pottery was officially founded in Ciboure by registering the brand “VE Ciboure” on May 17, 1922.