A master of 20th century ceramics, Emile Decoeur may be best known for his impact upon the Art Deco style. Quiet, pure and serene, Decoeur strikes a perfect harmony of form and glaze. There is an intuitive quality to his pleasing proportion and to the irregular markings on both the smooth and banded surfaces. The chance effects of the firing process seem less accidental than destined. Decoeur, the potter, at one with his medium, never tired at the prospect of probing deeper into the purity of design, and this lunar-like landscape beckons infinite exploration. Thrown on the potter’s wheel, the incised horizontal bands produced while he worked the vessel on the trimming wheel demonstrate Decoeur’s aesthetic of form and process as one. Decoeur was all about steadfast study and refinement. Where Japanese art influenced l’Art Nouveau, it was ancient art from China, particularly the Song dynasty, and Korea which resonated most with Decoeur. After 1927, he enriched his clay with kaolin so it became porcelainous upon firing. In his study of the Song masters, he learned their technique of stacking vessels upside down in the kiln. To prevent the vessels from sticking to the kiln’s shelf during firing, Chinese potters removed the glaze around the lip. They lent reinforcement to the fragile, unglazed rims by adding a metal band. The glossy black rim of dark underglaze is Decoeur’s homage to the ancient Chinese masters of ceramics.