Figueres Ceramic Cup Imitating Metal

This pretty, classic-looking bowl appears to be made of rusty metal, but is actually made of ceramic. It was created in the 1990s by Marcel Figuères, a master of trompe l'oeil.

Born in 1928 and deceased in 2017, he lived through the twentieth century with the passion and talent of nineteenth-century ceramists. Relentlessly, he sought to dominate the material, its firing and its decoration to create virtuoso pieces.
After starting his career as a ceramist with the Massiers in Vallauris, he attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Marseille, where he met his future wife Gilberte, who worked at the St-Jean du Désert earthenware factory, with whom they created their own workshop in 1952.
Among the various specialties he explored, Marcel Figuères excelled from the 80s in the art of naturalistic trompe-l'oeil, inspired by the ancients such as Bernard Palissy while researching new ceramic finishing materials while even cooperating with NASA.
He thus resulted in pieces of astonishing realism, including fish that made him famous but also a wide variety of vegetables and fruits.
Today, his sons still perpetuate the art of Marcel Figuères, adapting it to the tastes of their time.