A Lucky Charity Shop Find a 1950s Robert Picault of Vallauris Gratin Soup Set

 

A lucky charity shop find, a 1950s Robert Picault Vallauris Gratin Soup Set

I had been hunting in charity shops for a couple of gratin soup bowls for a while. Something oven-proof, sturdy and properly French, the sort of thing that makes onion soup feel like an event. Then, in a charity shop, there it was a 1950s caquelon-style soup service, five bowls in a smooth brown glaze, and serving bowl included, and signed when fired 'Vallauris' for a £5.

It's amazing what you can find with AI, the style and script of the signature and the dot, along with the glaze shows them to be by Robert Picault.

The mark carries a small dot above the "s". I was told this identifies a particular apprentice. It is a lovely detail, Vallauris workshops did use dots, initials and incised symbols to tell makers or decorators apart.

Robert Picault (1919–2000) was a Parisian-born potter who settled in Vallauris in the late 1940s and ran his own workshop there through the 1950s. Vallauris (known as a city of a hundred potters) was booming at the time. Picasso and the Madoura pottery had revived the town's reputation, and Picault became one of the more commercially successful independent studios working there. Sets like mine were sold at tourist places, galleries and bazaars in the same area of the South of France.

He is best known for modernist, slightly abstract forms in matt or satin glazes, and he made functional tableware and lamps as well as decorative pieces. That mix of good design and everyday usefulness is exactly what makes a soup set like this appealing. It was made to be used.

Caquelon-style pot and bowl in a smooth brown glaze, made in Vallauris in the 1950s

Brown glazes like this were popular for oven-to-table ware. They are warm, forgiving and look right with rustic French food. Glaze colour and finish varied between ranges.

Now to get cooking.. gratin soup for tea.