The “Pays de Bray” surrounding the city of Beauvais in the Picardy region of present-day France, has been a pottery-
producing region for centuries. Archeological excavations conducted in Beauvais after the widespread destruction of the city by aerial bombardment in 1940 revealed pottery shards from the Gallo-Roman period, through the Carolingian and Medieval eras, to modern times. The region is reported to have supplied ceramics to all of France during the Middle Ages. The ceramic
industry took root in this region due to its large deposits of clay of a wide variety of colors, known in the Picard dialect as
“terres à pots”. Although ceramic production in the region surrounding Beauvais was continuous from the first century A.D., the focus was almost entirely on utilitarian ware until the 19th century. Beginning in the 14th century, the potters of Sain-Germain-la-Poterie were the first in France to master the production of stoneware, utilizing local clay vitrified by firing at a temperature of 1,280°C. Salt-glazed artistic stoneware was introduced by the painter Jules Ziegler who moved to Voisinlieu in 1838 to work with the highly regarded clays of the region, surrounding himself with skilled ceramicists and melders from Germany and Choisy-le-Roi. Following the introduction of artistic stoneware by Ziegler in the first half of the 19th century, the best known ceramic artist to emerge in the region was Félix-Auguste Delaherche (1857-1940), who was born in Beauvais and is considered a pioneer of the Art Nouveau style in France. Shortly before Delaherche’s birth, Johann Peter Greber moved from his native Austria and established himself in Beauvais, laying the foundations for a four-generation stoneware dynasty in his adopted home in France. His descendants went on to make the Gréber name among the best known in French Art Nouveau ceramics in the early 20th century.
The story of the Gréber stoneware dynasty of Beauvais, France begins in the town of Bezau in the Bregenz Forest of the Voralberg region of Austria. Johann Peter Gréber (1820-1898) was the last of 12 children born to a family of Tyrolian peasants and escaped a life of poverty by training at the Munich Polytechicum, where he took a first prize for sculpture. He left for Paris and by age 26 he arrived in Beauvais in 1846 at the age of 26, where he practiced his trade by sculpting decorations for the facades of important buildings in Beauvais and Paris while paying the family bills by sculpting funeral monuments for wealthy patrons. By 1866, he turned his interest to ceramics, establishing the “Maison P. Gréber” to produce architectural ceramics and artistic stoneware. He built two kilns in 1868 and 1870, launching an enterprise that was to operate continuously for nearly a century until the factory’s closure in 1962. Johann Peter Gréber married Virginie Mathelin, daughter of a wealthy local family in Beauvais. They had eight children, of whom three were to play particularly important roles in building the artistic legacy of the Gréber family. Paul Gréber (1851-1915) joined the family business around 1870 to produce salt-glazed artistic stoneware in the style popularized by Jules Ziegler. Charles Gréber (1853-1941) joined the family firm around the same time and, together with his brother Paul ran the company from around 1880 until 1899, shortly after the death of their father, when Paul established his own workshop in Allonne. The third son of Johann Peter and Virginie was Henri Gréber, who went on to become a famous sculptor, whose Paris studios were busy with important commissions. In 1904, he was named “Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur”, at age 50. In 1911, he executed a sculpture of a potter at his wheel for the new façade of the Gréber workshop designed by the architect Maurice Thorel, which has been classified since 1979 as a national historic monument. Charles operated the family business on his own from 1899 until 1933 when he turned over leadership to Pierre Gréber (1896-1965), the son of his younger brother Albert. This third generation was able to maintain the family enterprise until 1962, when it closed after Pierre was unable to convince his daughter Françoise, herself a scupltor and ceramicist based in Paris with her artist husband Philippe Hebbrecht, to take over leadership.
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About the seller: I have been collecting art pottery for more than 30 years. The bulk of my collection is Danish stoneware from the 1920s into the 1970s. The bulk of my Danish collection consists of Arne Bang, Saxbo, Jais Nielsen, Nils Thorsson, Erik Hjorth, and Ejvind Nielsen. I have done extensive research on these and other artists and workshops and would be happy to share that with interested buyers. I also have substantial collections of American, French, Belgian and other 20th century northern European art pottery. The bulk of my French/Belgian collection consists of Pierrefonds, Denbac, Charles and Pierre Greber, and Roger Guerin, with some pieces from other workshops, including Gilbert Metenier and Alphones Cytere. Over the coming months I will be listing a wide range of pieces from my collection. Please check out my other listings and add me to your list of saved sellers to receive notification of new listings.