Robj
The French company Robj sales from 1908 until the early 1930s ceramic articles , often stylized caricatures of musicians, sailors and French costumes in the style of Art Deco represented.
history
Robj was founded in 1908 by Jean Born. The company's name was an anagram of an abbreviation of the name of its founder, J. Bor. Originally, the company offered electric lighters and incense sticks, but gradually shifted its focus to the manufacture and sale of arts and crafts under the slogan Bibelots de Robj ( Robjs trinkets ). Together with Lucien Willemetz, Born ran a shop with porcelain figurines and other objects on Paris street Cite d'Hauteville 3 . The company did not manufacture the art items itself, but commissioned the designs from several suppliers, including Manufacture royale de porcelaine de Sèvres , Villeroy & Boch in Luxembourg and factories in Limoges and Boulogne-sur-Seine . Especially the designs of figures, bottles of liquor and tobacco cans with crackle glaze turned out to be commercial successes and reached the end of the 1920s and early 1930s, the peak of its popularity. Other popular products were porcelain figurines, lights, fragrance lamps, ashtrays, ink containers, bookends, candy boxes and kitchen items.
Jean Born was killed in a traffic accident in 1922, after which Lucien Willemetz took over sole management. Robj won a bronze medal at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et industriels moderne in 1925 . The company sponsored Art Deco and Cubism ceramic designers such as Maurice Guiraud-Rivière Charles Lemanceau, Maurice Prost, Francis Thieck, Jeanne Lavergne, Henri Marin and E. Margerie. Between 1927 and 1931 the company hosted an annual competition to discover new designers. In 1928 alone 170 contributions were received.
Today the Robj products are considered collector's items. Their success and popularity led other manufacturers to imitate the designs. Georges Bastard, who opened a shop at 16 Rue Sainte-Cecil in Paris in 1912 , commissioned E. Margerie, who had designed many objects for Robj, to design some bizarre bottles.
literature
- Vanna Brega, Rossana Bossaglia, Enzo Biffi Gentili: Robj Paris. Le ceramiche 1921-1931. Leonardo International, 1995, ISBN 8-88648-201-9 , 222 pp.
Web links
- Robj (Co.) (French, active circa 1920-1939). In: artnet
- Robj Paris: Where Playful Collecting Meets Art Deco Whimsy. In: Two Red Roses Foundation, Newsletter December 2015.
- Robj - Maison de céramique humoristique. In: craftsdigger.com, 2016.
- Robj Collection by Christian Cueni. 2014, with pictures from the Cuenis collection.
Individual evidence
- ^ Information on Artistes & Sculptors. In: sheryls-artdeco.com
- ↑ Robj - Maison de céramique humoristique. In: craftsdigger.com, 2016.