Roland Blaettler, 2019
Keramik von Louis Guex in CERAMICA CH
Arnold Louis Guex (1910-1988) was born in Essert-Pittet and grew up in Lausanne. He trained at the Swiss School of Ceramics in Chavannes-près-Renens. According to research carried out by the History and Porcelain Museum in Nyon in the 1990s, he then worked in Schaffhausen for a year (perhaps at the Ziegler pottery factory). In 1931, he was hired by the well-known ceramicist Paul Bonifas in Ferney-Voltaire. Guex can be seen in a photograph dated 1932-1938 of a group of workers from various potteries in Ferney. The image caption says that he worked for Bonifas as a modeller (Ferney-Voltaire 1984, 270). However, due to the difficulties caused by the worldwide economic crisis, Bonifas was forced to drastically reduce staff numbers in 1931 and 1932. Guex was probably one of those who were made redundant – at any rate, he was employed by the Manufacture de poteries fines in Nyon from the autumn of 1932 onwards. The residents’ registration office in Nyon recorded his arrival from Lausanne in September of that year. He is described in the record as a “pottery modeller”.
Throughout the 1930s, Louis Guex was instrumental alongside the foreman, Josué Rieben, and the head of the decorating studio, Henri Crétenet, in reviving the production of the Nyon manufactory. He created new shapes and significantly improved the manufacturing process using plaster moulds (see the chapter “Manufacture de poteries fines de Nyon S. A.”).
Louis Guex left the manufactory in 1946 to set up his own company. In February 1947, it was listed under the title “Ceramic studio, 10 rue du collège” in the business register of the municipality of Nyon (Communal Archives of Nyon [ACN], Orange P-1). From that year onwards he is listed in the phonebooks of Vaud under the company name “Louis Guex, Céramique d’art”. The studio was not registered in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce until 7th June 1948 (SOGC, Vol. 66, 1948, 1662).
We do not know what his studio looked like. The communal archive has no records pertaining to any buildings or furnishings that would have required official planning permission.
Guex continued to work with refined white earthenware, producing moderately sized decorative pieces which were characterised by careful finishing. He cast the majority of his ceramics in plaster moulds, his main area of expertise. “Industrial” gilding, which does not require polishing, gave his works a rather special appeal (MHPN MH-2003-9; MHPN MH-2010-58; MHPN MH-2003-10; MHPN MH-1994-4; MHPN MH-1994-13; MHPN MH-2015-379; MHPN MH-2015-54; MHPN MH-2000-77; MHPN MH-2015-374; MHPN MH-FA-4640).
His maker’s mark, rarely stamped (impressed) and sometimes printed on labels, consisted of his surname written in the shape of a fish, framed by the words CÉRAMIQUE and NYON (MHPN MH-FA-4640; MHPN MH-2010-58; MHPN MH-2003-9).
Louis Guex declared bankruptcy in 1957. According to the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce, the process commenced on 2nd August 1957 and was completed by 18th November 1958 (SOGC, Volume 78, 1960, 1459). In January 1959, he left Nyon and moved to Renens but returned as early as December the same year. In May 1960, Guex moved to Lausanne.
Translation Sandy Haemmerle
Sources:
Communal Archives of Nyon [ACN], Orange P-1, Business register
Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce, consulted via the website e-periodica.ch
References:
Blaettler 2017
Roland Blaettler, CERAMICA CH III/1: Vaud (Nationales Inventar der Keramik in den öffentlichen Sammlungen der Schweiz, 1500-1950), Sulgen 2017, 65, 438.
Ferney-Voltaire 1984
Ferney-Voltaire. Pages d’histoire. Ferney-Voltaire/Annecy 1984.
