Among art historians, dealers and collectors of 20^th century European ceramics, Belgium is known primarily for the artistry of Boch Frères Keramis in La Louvière and the high-fired salt-glazed iridescent stoneware, referred to locally as grès sale grand feu, produced in Châtelet and Bouffioulx in the first four decades of the 20^th century. The story of the revival of stoneware production in Bouffioulx begins with the Brussels painter Willem Delsaux (1862-1945). Delsaux trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels from 1878 to 1880, followed by classes at the School of Fine Arts in Paris, after which he took up work as a painter in Brussels. In 1907, he settled in Bouffioulx with the goal of reviving artistic ceramic production in the region, adapting traditional production and decoration techniques to produce stoneware in keeping with 20^th century tastes.  Delsaux became a teacher at the Université du Travail in Charleroi, where he taught decorative arts, drawing, painting and ceramics. In 1911 he founded the Poterie de l'Escarboucle, but the onset of WWI greatly hindered the operations of his firm.

Among Delsaux’s earliest collaborators in Bouffioulx was Edgard Aubry (1880-1943). Aubry, who was born in Châtelet 

and died in Bouffioulx, left school at age 11 for the family workshop before becoming a thrower at the Gilles pottery in

Châtelet in 1903.  By the time that Willem Delsaux moved to Bouffioulx in 1907, Aubry was already recognized as a highly skilled thrower, and they soon began to work together to create vases with an impressionist décor, while Aubry also

turned vases for other artists like Pierre Paulus. In 1908, Aubry set up his own studio and created salt-fired stoneware, 

sometimes decorated with motifs, reliefs and engravings. Between 1916 and 1937, he participated in several national 

and international exhibitions. It is found in the Pavilion of Honor at the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative Arts 

and Industrial in 1925 but also in Glasgow in 1928. Aubry also played an important role in developing the next 

generation of local ceramic artists as a teacher at the Université du Travail in Charleroi.

Among the most precocious and ambitious students of Delsaux and Aubry at the Université du Travail was Roger Guérin, who also undertook studies in chemistry to develop his knowledge of glazes. He first went to work at two industrial potteries in Châtelet— Frères Gilles and Grégoire— where he perfected his skills at the pottery wheel. By age 19, he had his first exhibition as an artist, and at age 22 he married Camille Delsaux, daughter of his mentor Willem Delsaux.  The newlyweds moved to Bouffioux and took over Willem Delsaux’s workshop when he return to Brussels after the war. Roger Guérin quickly achieved both artistic recognition and commercial success. Following in the footsteps of Edgard Aubry, he exhibited his work both at home in Belgium and internationally. Guérin exhibited his work beginning in 1920, primarily in Belgium, but also at important exhibitions in Paris (1925), Monza (1930), and New York (1947). His stoneware won a silver medal at the landmark Paris International Decorative Arts Exhbition in 1925, firmly establishing his artistic reputation. During these years from roughly 1930 to 1947, he also was a professor of art ceramics at the Abbaye de la Cambre in Brussels and the Ecole Industrielle de Châtelet, training the next generation of local stoneware artists.
 
As a businessman, Guérin presided for three decades over a thriving commercial enterprise.  In 1919, with the financial support of two local notables, he built his first kiln and established  the “Poterie Roger Guérin”, his first cooperative society. In 1929 a new company was founded The Société Anonyme des Grès de Bouffioulx which in 1935 was replaced by another company. At the height of his commercial success, Roger employed more than 40 artisans and workers. The Guérin workshops were organized in a modern fashion to efficiently produce high quality serial stoneware objects to at affordable prices for ordinary households. Beginning in 1921, Guérin developed a catalogue of numbered forms and sizes to facilitate the sale of his wares. While Guérin’s workshop represented a form of rationalized industrial production, he stayed true of the spirit of artistic stoneware, in which each piece is handmade and thus unique. 
 
The post-World War II era marked the beginning of the end for Guérin and many other producers of artistic ceramics. Jules Guérin (1919-1998) took over the workshop from his father around 1945. He struggled to maintain Les Grès Guérin as a viable commercial enterprise and succeeded in doing so after his father’s death in 1954 and up to its collapse in 1970. After that, two attempts were made to revive the enterprise, first by a management committee of the workers, which failed in 1970, and then by Jules Guérin, which failed definitively in 1988, ten years before his death. The former Guérin workshop in Bouffioulx has been preserved as the “Maison de Poterie”, serving as a local tourist attraction and historical archive.

Most stoneware produced in the Guérin workshops is signed, and many pieces bear a model number, although there are some exceptions to this rule. Roger Guérin designed and threw pots and began exhibiting his work as early as 1915. Most of his production, however, can be dated to the period between the two World Wars after he established his own workshop in 1918. Most of his work bears a script “Guérin” signature, often accompanied by a model number, as depicted in Figure 3. Early works, prior to 1925, sometimes were signed “R. Guérin”. His son Jules who joined his father and then took over leadership of the workshop after World War II also signed his work using a script “Guérin”, but it is fairly easily distinguished from that of his father.  A number of other identifying marks can, however, be found on Guérin stoneware from the 1920s and 1930s, sometimes in conjunction with the artists signature and sometimes without.  To assist with dating, it is helpful to remember that the original “Poteries Roger Guérin” cooperative society was replaced in 1929 by the “Société Anonyme des Grès de Bouffioulx”, which was in turn replaced in 1938 by “Grès de Bouffioulx S.A.”.