Rago Auctions

Founded before the French Revolution by Pierre Massier (1707-1748) as an atelier for utilitarian ware, by the late 19th century the Massiers—particularly Clément—dominated the world of French Art Nouveau ceramics and reached levels of fame and success unparalleled by their contemporaries.

Clément, Pierre’s great-grandson, began his long and storied career in his teens as a trainee in his family’s Vallauris atelier. He spent his formative years studying ceramics in Italy, collaborating with Félix-Optat Milet, and exhibiting Japoniste faience at the 1878 Exposition Universelle. Clément also ran the family business with elder brother Delphin for a time in Vallauris until sibling rivalry prompted Clément to open his own atelier in Golfe-Juan in 1883. The town was an ideal location situated on a vacation route to the popular French Riviera; within a year his business turned a profit and boasted a staff of 120, along with an exhibition hall, factory, gallery, and tea house.

Clément’s success skyrocketed with the addition of Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer as his artistic director in 1887. Having already dabbled in iridescent lustre glazes, he and Lévy-Dhurmer successfully developed a wide range of “reflective-metallic” glazes with designs inspired by both Lévy-Dhurmer’s Symbolist paintings and Hispano-Moresque ceramic collection, as well as the sea and local landscapes. They unveiled the fruits of their labor to great acclaim at the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle. Lévy-Dhurmer stayed on at Clément’s atelier until 1895 and introduced the use of metal mounts and intricate surface effects such as etching and stamping to enhance the décor of certain works. Clément’s quest to develop and perfect lustre glazes was a life-long pursuit that gained him a high-profile clientele, among them Queen Victoria and Victor Hugo. The Massier name became, and remains, synonymous with French lusterware.