A Pair of Enamelled Faience Vases

By Paul Milet, circa 1900

Stamped with the firm's mark

Each vase: 11 ½ in (29.21 cm) high

Paul Milet, son of Optat Milet, came from a well-defined lineage of potters. Paul Milet entered his father's pottery workshop in the town of Sèvres in 1894 and for the next 36 years produced high-quality ceramics sold through Parisian shops and interior decorators. Because his aesthetic preferences kept pace with the fashions of the era, his early work this pair of vases, favours the floral and whiplash ornamentation associated with the Art Nouveau movement. By comparison, his later work is serene, simple and glazed in high-contrast jazz-age colours.