Emil Lenoble French, 1875-1940

A favorite stoneware potter of the consummate Art Deco style-master, Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann, Lenoble was also a trusted colleague and son-in-law to the renowned ceramist, Ernest Chaplet. Lenoble studied at l’Ecole des Arts Decoratifs then worked for a number of years in commercial ceramics prior to joining Chaplet’s Choisy-le-Roi workshop in 1903. Like Chaplet’s early work, Lenoble’s stoneware shows a strong influence from Korean and Chinese ceramics of the Song Dynasty. Following Chaplet’s death in 1907, Lenoble moved toward a more geometric style where floral and linear patterns dominate his work and the monochromatic glazes of his early style give way to two-tone and occasionally crystalline glazes.