Gentil & Bourdet - Opium Box

Opium box, decorated with mascarons and flowering poppies, cover with female head circa 1900 - Glazed stoneware with iridescent blue-green reflections, terracotta cover Circular stamp Gentil & Bourdet of the Manufacture de Boulogne Billancourt Gentil & Bourdet is a flamed stoneware factory founded in 1900-1905 by two eponymous architect-ceramic friends. Former students of the architect Victor Laloux at the Beaux-Arts in Paris, they joined forces and founded the company "Gentil, Bourdet et Cie, stoneware, ceramics for construction, furnishings" in Boulogne-Billancourt. Fully in line with the "Art Nouveau" movement in Nancy with numerous creations in flamed stoneware, they also developed a production of decorative stoneware objects: vases, paperweights, inkwells, ashtrays, tobacco pots, and small decorative subjects. In their production before 1914, we note a certain number of creations of stoneware coverings or mosaics for villas, buildings and Parisian metro stations (lines 12 and 13), still visible today.