Squirrels, Bookends By L. Fontinelle, Crackled Ceramic

Louis Fontinelle began his career at the Beaux-Arts in Lille as ajack-of-all-trades before becoming a sculptor. His artistic journey took itsfirst major turn when he met Louis Dage,who was also from the Nord region. Together, they founded a pottery workshop in Antony, in the Paris region, in 1920. However, as early as 1922, Fontinelle quietly withdrew from this collaboration, leaving behind a few rare pieces co-signed “Dage and Fontinelle.”

In 1927, Fontinelle opened his third studio in Marines, in the Val-d’Oise, the one that would remain the most iconic of his work. He thus fully embraced the general craze for crackle glaze, a true French aesthetic phenomenon of the interwar period.
At that time, these statuettes and decorative sculptures in white earthenware, crisscrossed with fine intentional cracks caused by thermal shock (a technique borrowed from 12th-century Chinese ceramic art), became a must-have in modern interiors. There, they established themselves as the decorative object par excellence, symbolizing a sober and refined elegance in contrast to the previous profusion of color.

Following in the footsteps of renowned sculptors and designers such as François Pompon, Charles Lemanceau,or the Adnet brothers, and famous workshops like those of Robj, Primavera, or Kaza, Fontinelle found in this aesthetic niche a fertile ground for his expression. His original and subtly humorous creations quickly won over prestigious clients such as Le Bon Marché, the B.H.V., or La Samaritaine. He exported to England and as far as South America.
However, the economic crisis of 1929 put put a damper on the craquelé trend. Fontinelle, always eager to adapt, then diversified his creations and produced vases adorned with naturalistic floral motifs, thus contrasting slightly with the geometric Art Deco aesthetic in vogue at the time.
Signed in brushstrokes on the rim: L. Fontinelle