Ceramic Vase

Set of Mid-Century Modern French ceramic by Elchinger, 1950's, vase Vide poche.

One earthenware vase and one vide poche with enameled decorations of deep orange patches. The background ranges from white to charcoal gray and speckled blue. There is a very nice interplay of textures between the glazes which give this piece a soft and silky feel but also rough and strong. The interior of the vase is also enameled in black and speckled blue. It dates from the 1950s and is signed Elchinger – France.

The vase as a more important piece is signed below.

Céramiques Elchinger is a family business that Wendelin Elchinger (1809-1895) founded in 1834 on the present site. Fernand Elchinger (1911-1975) took over his family's ceramics business in 1936, expanded and modernized the factory and built a second one in 1975 on another site. He installed the first continuous six-pass electric kiln in France and thus industrialized the production of earthenware. Above all, he strengthened the production of ceramic saturators, becoming the leading manufacturer in Europe.

Carried by the craze for the ceramics of Vallauris, the Alsatian manufacture knew a strong notoriety with its productions of the years 1950-1960. These creations, vases and pitchers with pure forms, differed from the exuberant achievements of the workshops of the South.