Vallauris Gargoulette, Ceramic Water Jug with Ring Handle, Speckled Bronze & Olive, 19 cm, France 1960s/70s

This gargoulette comes from Vallauris, the pottery town on the Côte d’Azur that became a centre of French post-war ceramics after the Second World War through studios such as Madoura, Roger Capron and Robert Picault. The gargoulette is the traditional Provençal water jug: it is filled through the wide opening, one drinks from the narrow spout in a stream without touching the vessel with the lips, and it is carried by the ring handle. The base is impressed with the stamp “VALLAURIS”; there is no artist’s signature or studio mark, so the piece is attributed to the pottery town rather than to a specific workshop. Glaze and making suggest that it was produced in the 1960s or 1970s.

The bulbous, wheel-thrown body stands on a stepped foot ring and shows encircling throwing rings in its lower third. A broad, strap-like ring handle sits on the shoulder, flanked by a short filling opening with a rolled rim and a slender, upward-angled spout. The satin-matte glaze is finely speckled: a sand-coloured ground combines with bronze, brown and olive tones that deepen to dark brown on the handle and rims and, depending on the light, take on a subtle metallic sheen. The unglazed underside reveals the red terracotta body.

On a sideboard, shelf or kitchen ledge, the gargoulette brings a piece of Provençal pottery tradition into a mid-century or vintage interior; with single branches or dried grasses it can also be used as a vase. It measures 19 cm in height, 18.5 cm in width and 14 cm in depth. It is in very good condition, with no chips or cracks; small glaze dots are from the firing, and the unglazed underside shows light, age-appropriate traces.