Mithé Espelt, mirror "Decorative Arts"

Mithé ESPELT (1923-2020), Mirror "Decorative Arts" Atelier de Lunel, France, circa 1980. Stamped earthenware with slightly raised decoration, nuanced pink glazes, crackled gold highlights, fused glass. This quadrangular wall mirror with rounded corners is an emblematic piece of Mithé ESPELT's floral vocabulary. The decoration at the top features two stylised flowers blooming on either side of the mirror. The petals are treated with great delicacy in pastel pink tones, characteristic of the artist's poetic palette. The centres of these flowers are enhanced by the inclusion of fused glass cabochons, whose crystalline transparency and colour nuances contrast with the opacity of the ceramic. The technique used for the stamped earthenware involves pressing the decoration into the clay before glazing it. The contours and details are highlighted by wide crackled gold lines, a complex technical signature of the Lunel workshop that requires multiple firings. The off-white background presents a network of fine, regular cracks, adding a precious texture to the whole. Trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Montpellier, Mithé ESPELT elevated artisanal ceramics to the status of wall jewellery. Bibliography: Antoine Candau, Mithé Espelt: The Discreet Luxury of Everyday Life, Éditions Odyssée, 2020, model reproduced p. 180.