Gustave Reynaud (1915-1972)

He moved to Vallauris on the French Riviera in 1955 and opened with his brother-in-law Jean Derval the Pottery called “Le Mûrier”.

He employed the thrower Jean-François Descombes and the decorator Michel Barbier.Jean Derval and Jean Rivier designed production models.

The decoration is highly characteristic : the near-naive motifs, beneath the glaze or incised in the clay, are in cuprous red, cobalt blue or uranium oxide yellow. Stylised birds or foliage are the most common themes, both for utilitarian pieces and for exhibition pieces in which abstract motifs were also employed.

During Reynaud’s lifetime, pieces were signed with a mulberry leaf, broadly delineated with a brush under the glaze or on unglazed clay on the back.

Biography

La Céramique française des années 50, Pierre Staudenmeyer, Norma Editions, bilingual edition

L’ âge d’or de Vallauris, Anne Lajoux, Les Editions de l’Amateur