Roland Blaettler, 2019
Ceramics made by Édouard Isaac in CERAMICA CH
A chapter entitled “refined white earthenware and slipped earthenware” in a brochure on various ceramic wares from Nyon written by Edgar Pelichet mentions a “refined white earthenware art pottery studio” founded by Édouard Isaac in 1918. Initially, Isaac was at 3 Rue Saint-Jean, from where he moved to Rue de la Gare and eventually to Rue Neuve, where he had “a workshop at his family’s screw factory” (Pelichet 1985/2,45). Again, the author does not cite his sources.
The Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce dated 7th December 1917 lists a Jules Frédéric Édouard as company head of “E. Isaac, refined white earthenware art pottery”, domiciled at 3d Rue Saint-Jean (Vol. 35, 1917, 19319). The notice also states that Isaac was an artist by profession.
Between 1919 and 1922, Isaac was listed in the Indicateur vaudois as a “refined white earthenware decorator”, still residing on Rue Saint-Jean. This appears to contradict Pelichet’s claim that Isaac made his own ceramics (Pelichet 1985/2, 45). The small number of ceramics that were available to us for study suggest that Isaac decorated refined white earthenware, which was industrially produced by the Manufacture de poteries fines in Nyon and probably delivered to him in the biscuit state.
As for his links to the Isaac industrialist family in Nyon, we can only assume, for now, that Jules Frédéric Édouard was perhaps a son or nephew of Charles-Édouard Isaac (1851–1925), the managing director of the screw factory “Jules Isaac et fils S. A.” between 1906 and 1916 (Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce [SOGC], Vol. 25, 1907, p. 439 – Obituary for Charles-Édouard, in: Feuille d’avis de Lausanne dated 30th October 1925, 20).
Apart from a plate with a historicist design (MHPN MH-2012-101), which was probably intended as merchandise to promote the new studio, Nyon Castle houses a commemorative plate (MHPN MH-2010-60) and a series of plates with parrot designs (MHPN MH-2000-73A; MHPN MH-2000-73B; MHPN MH-2000-73C; MHPN MH-2000-73D).
Édouard Isaac’s company mark (maker’s mark, signature) consists of his initials “E I”, a fish motif and the initial “N” for Nyon (MHPN MH-2010-60; MHPN MH-2000-73B).
Isaac’s ceramic production probably ceased some time in 1922.
Translation Sandy Haemmerle
Sources:
Vaud press and phonebooks, accessed via the “Scriptorium” website of the Cantonal and University Library in Lausanne.
The Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce, accessed 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, 440
Pelichet 1985/2
Edgar Pelichet, Les charmantes faïences de Nyon. Nyon 1985.
