The Cabinet
The Cabinet
Choose a section to read. The Cabinet keeps the curatorial note, project notes, research articles, and recommended resources behind these four entries.
Curatorial Note
Le Bestiaire de Céramique Art Nouveau is a private collecting project and scholarly archive devoted to animal-centered ceramics produced in France and select European centers between roughly 1870 and 1920. The collection began with a fascination for the strange vitality of Art Nouveau ceramics: works in which animals are not merely decorative motifs, but agents of movement, atmosphere, transformation, and meaning.
The objects gathered here span a broad ceramic bestiary: crabs, fish, moths, spiders, frogs, lizards, snakes, birds, bats, mammals, and fantastical creatures drawn from myth, folklore, and imagination. Many were made in small ateliers, experimental workshops, and ambitious manufactories where sculptors, ceramists, decorators, and glaze specialists pushed clay toward new expressive possibilities.
The archive is organized to show these works from several angles at once. Each object can be approached through its animal subject, ceramic form, maker, material, place of production, and artistic context. This structure reflects the central premise of the Bestiaire: that animal imagery in Art Nouveau ceramics was not incidental, but one of the period’s richest vehicles for natural observation, symbolism, technical experiment, and poetic invention.
Above all, the Bestiaire is offered as an invitation — to look slowly, to compare closely, and to continue the conversation with collectors, dealers, scholars, curators, and institutions who share an interest in the ceramic imagination of the fin de siècle. It is a celebration of clay, creatures, curiosity, and the enduring power of objects to make the natural world strange again.
Bestiaire Project Notes
The Bestiaire is built as a working scholarly archive rather than a static catalogue. Object records, artist and maker dossiers, animal classifications, and geographic paths are kept in parallel so a single work can be read from several directions at once.
Editorial work proceeds in phases: first the public architecture of the site, then object photography and record depth, then new artists and objects as they enter the collection. Notes on method appear on the Methodology page; the present Cabinet is reserved for curatorial writing, research, and resources that sit beside the records themselves.
Research Articles
Recommended Resources
Archives & Databases
National & Institutional Collection Databases
- Joconde / POP — Plateforme ouverte du patrimoine (French Ministry of Culture). The consolidated catalogue of the Musées de France; the searchable record for regional museums without databases of their own. www.pop.culture.gouv.fr
- RMN–Grand Palais image bank — the working route into Sèvres, Orsay and Limoges objects. www.images.grandpalaisrmn.fr
- Europeana — cross-European aggregator covering the German, Dutch and Scandinavian holdings. www.europeana.eu
- Base Salons (Musée d’Orsay / INHA) — searchable Salon exhibitor records, 1673–1914. salons.musee-orsay.fr
Digital Libraries & Period Sources
- Gallica (Bibliothèque nationale de France) — Art et Décoration, Revue des arts décoratifs, L’Art décoratif, exposition catalogues and reports. gallica.bnf.fr
- INHA Bibliothèque numérique — Salon livrets, dealer and exhibition catalogues. bibliotheque-numerique.inha.fr
- Persée — scholarly journals, including the revue Sèvres of the Société des Amis du Musée national de Céramique. www.persee.fr
- Internet Archive — 1889 and 1900 exposition reports and early monographs. archive.org
- HathiTrust Digital Library. www.hathitrust.org
Auction Archives & Price Databases
- Gazette Drouot. www.gazette-drouot.com
- Drouot.com. www.drouot.com
- Interencheres — regional French auction houses. www.interencheres.com
- Invaluable. www.invaluable.com
- LiveAuctioneers. www.liveauctioneers.com
- artnet Price Database. www.artnet.com/price-database
Danish Ceramics
- The Groth Collection www.grothcollection.com
- A Private Collection of Danish Art Nouveau Porcelain danporantik.de
French Ceramics
- French Porcelain frenchporcelaine.com
- Jason Jacques Gallery — Historic archive www.jasonjacques.com/historic
Articles & Essays
- Arthur, Paul. “Louis Franchet: Un maître oublié de la technologie de la céramique.” Sèvres: Revue de la Société des Amis du Musée national de Céramique 19 (2010): 143–147. persee.fr
- Arthur, Paul. “Les céramistes du 24 rue de la Quintinie: Baudin, Wolf, Mougin.” Sèvres: Revue de la Société des Amis du Musée national de Céramique 20 (2011). academia.edu
- Arthur, Paul. “Alfred Le Chatelier et l’Atelier de Glatigny.” Sèvres: Revue de la Société des Amis du Musée national de Céramique 26 (2017): 108–119. persee.fr
- Arthur, Paul. “Dalpayrat, the Master of Oxblood Red (Rouge Dalpayrat).” In Adrien Dalpayrat. TEFAF, 2019. Available via unisalento.academia.edu/PaulArthur
- Arthur, Paul. The Magic of Sèvres 1900. Annotated catalogue of Sèvres porcelain and stoneware, c. 1900. academia.edu
- Arthur, Paul. “Dalpayrat, Doat, and the Dawn of Modern Ceramics.” In Design, Christie’s New York, sale catalogue, December 11, 2024. academia.edu
- Arthur, Paul. “Alhambresque: An Early Stoneware Vase by Ziegler in the Hispano-Moresque Style.” Academia.edu, n.d. Available via unisalento.academia.edu/PaulArthur
- Horváth, Hilda. “Le Pavillon Bigot-Lavirotte.” Ars Decorativa 29 (2013). Budapest: Museum of Applied Arts.
- Ives, Colta. “Japonisme.” Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004. www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/jpon/hd_jpon.htm
- Laurin, Isabelle. “L’Art nouveau à Sèvres: L’École Guérin et le vase des Pommerets.” Sèvres: Revue de la Société des Amis du Musée national de Céramique 19 (2010): 132–142. persee.fr
- “Les céramiques de Chaplet conservées au Petit Palais: Originalité et singularité d’une collection.” Sèvres: Revue de la Société des Amis du Musée national de Céramique 21 (2012). persee.fr [author to be completed]
- “Céramiques d’Auguste Delaherche au Musée des Beaux-Arts.” Bulletin des musées et monuments lyonnais (1991), no. 2. persee.fr [author to be completed]
- Spjøtvold, M. [first name to be completed]. “Jens Thiis i Paris: Franske ervervelser på verdensutstillingen i 1900.” Kunst og Kultur 102, no. 4 (2019). idunn.no
- Sullivan, Elizabeth. “French Art Pottery.” Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2014. www.metmuseum.org/essays/french-art-pottery
Note: Academia.edu pages show abstracts openly but require a free account to download the PDFs.
Auction & Gallery Catalogs
- Bonhams New York. The Jason Jacques Collection, September 30, 2025. bonhams.com
- Tajan, Paris. Decorative Arts (Massier and Vallauris ceramics), November 18, 2014. tajan.com
- Thierry de Maigret, Paris. Grès de Puisaye: Une Collection, June 4, 2025. thierrydemaigret.com
Books
General (essential)
- Arthur, Paul. French Art Nouveau Ceramics: An Illustrated Dictionary. Paris: Éditions Norma, 2015. ISBN 978-2-915542-65-3.
- Duncan, Alastair. The Paris Salons 1895–1914. Vol. 4, Ceramics and Glass. Woodbridge: Antique Collectors’ Club, 1998. ISBN 978-1-85149-229-9.
- Lambrechts, Marc. L’Objet sublime: Franse keramiek 1875–1945 / French Ceramics 1875–1945. Antwerp: Pandora, 2015.
- Makus, Horst. Französische Kunst-Keramik 1860–1920: Ein Handbuch. Tübingen/Berlin: Ernst Wasmuth Verlag, 2016. ISBN 978-3-8030-4032-9.
Monographs & Exhibition Catalogues
- Makus, Horst. Adrien Dalpayrat (1844–1910): Französische Jugendstil-Keramik / Céramique française de l’Art nouveau. Stuttgart: Arnoldsche, 1998.
- Simier, Amélie, ed. Jean Carriès (1855–1894): La matière de l’étrange. Exhibition catalogue, Petit Palais. Paris: Paris Musées, 2007.
French Regional
- Ducret, Marc, and Patricia Monjaret. L’École de Carriès: L’art céramique à Saint-Amand-en-Puisaye, 1888–1940. Paris: Les Éditions de l’Amateur, 1997. ISBN 978-2-85917-245-9.
- Nesly, Emmanuel, and Bernard Nesly. Grès de Puisaye, de Jean Carriès à nos jours: Marques et signatures. Preface by Marcel Poulet. Saint-Amand-en-Puisaye: published by the authors, 2026.
Continental Europe
Denmark
- Todd, Elliot. Danish Porcelain: 250 Years of Royal Copenhagen and Bing & Grøndahl. 2 vols. Woodbridge: ACC Art Books, 2025. ISBN 978-1-78884-150-4.
Sweden
- Dimdal, Markus. Art Nouveau från Rörstrand: Konstkeramiken 1895–1926. Stockholm: Arvinius + Orfeus, 2016. ISBN 978-91-87543-53-1.
Dealers & Galleries
- Danam Antik www.danam-antique.com
- Galerie Fledermaus www.galeriefledermaus.com/decorative-arts
- Galerie Méduse Toujours medusetoujours.fr
- Galerie Origines www.galerieorigines.com/en/artwork/collections/art-nouveau
- Klosterkælderen Antik & Porcelæn klosterkaelderen.dk
- Lillian Nassau LLC www.lilliannassau.com/catalogue/european-ceramics
- Macklowe Gallery www.macklowegallery.com/collections/ceramics
- Marc Maison www.marcmaison.com/objets-d-art-19th-century-paintings-and-furniture/ceramic-porcelain-faience
- Oscar Graf www.oscargraf.com
- Philippe Chapeau www.philippechapeau.fr/fr/12-art-nouveau
- Robert Zehil Gallery robertzehilgallery.com/ceramics-art-nouveau
Museums & Public Collections
French Japonist & Art Nouveau Ceramics. Listed alphabetically within each tier.
France — Essential
Collection search: Joconde / POP (www.pop.culture.gouv.fr)
Collection search: RMN image database (www.images.grandpalaisrmn.fr)
Note: the Musée national de Céramique at Sèvres is closed for renovation until 2030; its objects remain searchable through the RMN image database. Where a museum has no collection database of its own, the searchable record is the French Ministry of Culture’s Joconde / POP database.
France — Notable
Collection search: none online (visits by appointment)
Collection search: musee-ecole-de-nancy.nancy.fr/les-collections
Collection search: Joconde / POP (www.pop.culture.gouv.fr)
Europe (outside France) — Essential
Collection search: no public online catalogue
Europe (outside France) — Notable
United States — Essential
Collection search: vmfa.museum/collections