Max Claudet (1840 - 1893), France

He was born in Algiers and was a painter, sculpture and ceramic artist, best known for his portrait busts - working in bronze and terracotta. There is a museum devoted to him in his hometown of Salins les Bains, France.

Related to a family of potters, he made stoneware for a few years before going to work at the pottery of Salins-Capuchin . This pottery supported his ceramic experiments and its decorative plates and dishes, often very large, were adorned with glazed reliefs using a technique he invented.

I posted this because FLEDERMAUS just posted an exquisite porcelain vase by Edward Colonna for L'Art Nouveau Bing, Paris 1898-1903 that has the same decoration, maple or sycamore leaves & seeds, same country of origin and roughly the same time period.

I think this vase is beautiful too - but so different. I can best sum up the difference using a scene from a decades old movie: An Arab and a Crusader were comparing swords. The Crusader slammed his sword (my vase) into a steel bar and broke the bar into two pieces. The Arab threw a piece of silk into the air and as it floated down, he just stuck out his sword (Fledermaus' vase) - the silk parted into two pieces as it came into contact with the blade.