Mithé ESPELT (1923-2020) - Lot 1

Mithé ESPELT (1923-2020) Sparrow and flowers Hand-faced mirror, framed in polychrome and kiln-glazed ceramic; the decoration is treated in relief. Felt back and glass. H_24 cm W_15 cm Mithé Espelt, born Marie-Thérèse Espelt in Lunel (Hérault) in 1923, is a French ceramist renowned for her decorative and everyday objects. Born into a family deeply rooted in the region's artistic milieu - her grandfather Edmond Baissat rubbed shoulders with Frédéric Mistral, Jean Hugo and Jean Cocteau - she was immersed from childhood in an environment conducive to creativity. She first studied at the Beaux-Arts in Montpellier, before joining the École expérimentale de céramique in Fontcarrade, where she learned the art of fire. She then moved to Paris, where she worked in Nathalie Pol's studio and collaborated with Line Vautrin, perfecting her skills in enameling and gilding. Returning to Lunel in 1946, she set up her own workshop and developed a singular artistic language, blending utility and poetry. Her jewelry creations, mirrors, boxes, buttons and decorative objects are characterized by remarkable technical mastery, colored and crackled enamels, and a taste for fantasy and discreet refinement. The anonymity of some of her works has long limited their recognition, but Mithé Espelt's pieces, marked by the joy and elegance of everyday life, are now finding a growing place in international collections and sales. She died in Lunel in 2020, leaving behind a body of work in which craftsmanship and imagination transform the banal into the precious.