Description
The southern French town of Vallauris is one of the most famous places for ceramics. It’s a creatives playground for new shapes and techniques. Ceramics have been made there since Roman times, but Picasso’s arrival in the 1950s and later artists like Chagall Miró and transformed it into a famous ceramics capital. One of the numerous ateliers in Vallauris was Atelier Grandjean Jourdan, active from the 1950s to 1981. It was opened by Sébastien Grandjean (1883-1957) who was born in Vallauris. His son Eugène took over the business after his death and was responsible for introducing the range of Faux Bois items, which are highly collectable nowadays. This Faux Boix decoration is a handpainted technique to make the items resemble olive wood. The company closed in 1981 and the original pottery factory was bought by the local council in 1987.