Alexandre Bigot

Alexandre Bigot, a science teacher working in Alsace, resolved to experiment with pottery after seeing Asian ceramics displayed in Paris in 1889. He exhibited his early work, small simple vases and plates with applied newts, frogs, and snakes, somewhat in the manner of earlier French master Bernard Pallissy, in 1894. That year, Charles Holme (of The Studio, London) remarked on Bigot's exhibit, "the whole of [Bigot's] exhibit was modeled by his own hands," setting Bigot's work apart from not only from those who worked with apprentices but also from Bigot's factory-made products. [Source: Jason Jacques]