Mithé Espelt Decorative Objects
French, 1923-2020
Marie-Thérèse Espelt, known better as Mithé Espelt, was a dominant force in mid-20th-century ceramics in France. Mithé is remembered for her modern ceramic wall mirrors, gilded and enameled ashtrays and other ornate objects and boxes, often featuring birds and lively colors. She preferred not to sign her pieces and, as a consequence, much of her work has been misattributed, including to French ceramist François Lembo.
Mithé grew up in the Camargue region of France. Her father’s extensive network included 1904 Nobel Prize winner Frédéric Mistral and Parisian painter and decorator Jean Hugo. Mithé’s early introduction to a community of artists inspired her to study sculpture and drawing at the Beaux-Arts School in Montpellier in 1939.
Mithé’s early work caught the attention of French ceramist Emilie Decanis and jewelry distributor Charles Démery. Mithé set up a ceramics workshop in the Hôtel de Bernis in Lunel, where she quickly garnered a reputation for her ceramic work and accessories, including mirrors, jewelry boxes and buttons. Démery founded the Souleiado boutique, which began distributing Mithé’s work, thus attracting a worldwide audience.
French author Antoine Candau wrote a retrospective book on Mithé’s career titled Mithé Espelt, the Discreet Luxury of the Every Day, which contributed to bringing her legacy to the forefront while shedding light on her anonymity. While Mithé was respected within her inner circle, the general public is only now beginning to understand the immense talent behind her over five-decade-long career.
Find Mithé Espelt mirrors, decorative objects, wall decorations and more for sale on 1stDibs.
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Creator: Mithé Espelt
" Tresor" chest, Mithé Espelt circa 1953.
By Mithé Espelt
Located in Paris, Ile-de-France
" Tresor" chest. Rare rectangular box with glazed ceramic domed lid.
Set of blue and gold points, framed with crackled gold .
The box in black painted wood.
Original felt lining a...
Category
1950s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Mithé Espelt Decorative Objects
Materials
Ceramic, Felt, Wood
Set of Vintage Jewellery Holders with Decorative Ceramic Lids by Mithé Espelt
By Mithé Espelt
Located in London, GB
Vintage French jewellery containers with decorative ceramic lids by Mithé Espelt (circa 1970s). Flower and Bird motifs decorate these five delightful, diminutive wooden boxes. Two of the ceramic lids have golden craqueleur boundaries encircling the inner decoration. The containers would be an attractive grouping on the surface of a vanity or dressing table. Alternatively, they might simply be suitable as a splendid decorative display in the home. The pieces are in good overall condition with some minor natural differences in the colour of the woods. The overall charm is undeniable and they are real collector's items. Please enjoy the many photos accompanying the listing. Upon request, a video will be provided.
About the artist: Born in 1923 in Lunel, in the South of France, Mithé Espelt grew up in a family of affluent winegrowers and was very close to her grandfather who passed on his love for the arts and brought her into contact with major intellectuals and artists of the time. She rubbed shoulders with Jean Hugo, Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso, Christian Bérard and many others. She graduated from the Beaux-Arts school in Montpellier in 1942, and then studied at the Fontcarrade school where she took a special interest in ceramics. She began by designing buttons for fashion houses in Paris, before managing the entire production of buttons and jewellery at the Lydia Chartier workshop and collaborating with Line Vautrin, amongst others. At the end of the war, she returned to her native south, opened her studio and took advantage of the growing excitement around ceramics, particularly those from the town of Vallauris. To stand out and sustain the workshop business, she started designing gilded jewellery...
Category
1970s French Vintage Mithé Espelt Decorative Objects
Materials
Ceramic, Wood
White and Pink Fowers Ceramic Box by Mithé Espelt
By Mithé Espelt
Located in Saint-Ouen, IDF
Rectangular wooden box topped with a ceramic lid by Mithé Espelt. The ceramic showcases a cream glaze background and flower motifs in molten pink glass with crackled gold lining.
Bi...
Category
1960s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Mithé Espelt Decorative Objects
Materials
Ceramic
Mid Century Vivid Blue Ceramic Box with Golden Sun by Mithé Espelt
By Mithé Espelt
Located in Toronto, ON
An exceptional large mid century vivd blue glazed ceramic box with golden sun by famed artist, Mithé Espelt. The box lid is ceramic with a blackened wood base.
Born in 1923, Mithé Es...
Category
Mid-20th Century French Mithé Espelt Decorative Objects
Materials
Ceramic, Wood
Mithé Espelt Square Ceramic Box
By Mithé Espelt
Located in Saint-Ouen, IDF
Decorative square box by Mithé Espelt, stained wood box covered with a ceramic lid showing a single white and blue flower framed with gold glaze....
Category
1960s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Mithé Espelt Decorative Objects
Materials
Ceramic
Flowers Jewellery box
By Mithé Espelt
Located in Paris, FR
Glazed ceramic jewellery box with flowers and blackened wooden base.
This beautiful jewelry box is topped with a stamped earthenware lid and decorated with a floral enamel motif fea...
Category
1960s French Provincial Vintage Mithé Espelt Decorative Objects
Materials
Ceramic, Wood
$1,783
Decorative French Vintage Ceramic Thermometer and Casing by Mithé Espelt
By Mithé Espelt
Located in London, GB
Decorative, French vintage ceramic thermometer and casing by Mithé Espect (circa 1960s). A delightful piece with stylised bird and flower blossoms....
Category
1960s French Vintage Mithé Espelt Decorative Objects
Materials
Ceramic
Little flower
By Mithé Espelt
Located in Paris, FR
A jewelry box created as a tribute to the American musician and composer Sidney Bechet, by one of the leading figures in 20th-century French ceramics, who turned her art into an ode ...
Category
1960s French French Provincial Vintage Mithé Espelt Decorative Objects
Materials
Enamel, Gold Leaf
$1,129
Box Bird bronze
By Mithé Espelt
Located in Paris, FR
This elongated box is topped by a stamped earthenware lid decorated with gold enamel. For Mithé Espelt, the object is an essential element of the boudoir. It is both useful and an od...
Category
1960s French French Provincial Vintage Mithé Espelt Decorative Objects
Materials
Gold Leaf
$2,139
The Two Doves and the Branch
By Mithé Espelt
Located in Paris, FR
Radiance in a corner
This wooden box is topped by a stamped earthenware lid decorated with orange and scarlet polychrome enamels. For Mithé Espelt, the object is an essential elemen...
Category
Late 20th Century French French Provincial Mithé Espelt Decorative Objects
Materials
Ceramic, Wood
Colombes Mithé Espelt Box with Glazed Ceramic Lid
By Mithé Espelt
Located in Saint-Ouen, IDF
This exquisite piece showcases a rectangular wooden box topped with a ceramic lid.
The ceramic features two doves facing each other, circling a heart, adorned with alternating glazes...
Category
1960s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Mithé Espelt Decorative Objects
Materials
Ceramic, Wood
Mid Century Gold and Blue Ceramic Box with Birds by Mithé Espelt
By Mithé Espelt
Located in Toronto, ON
An exceptional mid century glazed ceramic box with liquid gold border and blue & white birds by famed artist, Mithé Espelt. The box lid is ceramic with a blackened wood base.
Born in...
Category
Mid-20th Century French Mithé Espelt Decorative Objects
Materials
Ceramic, Wood
1970's Ceramic box by Mithé Espelt
By Mithé Espelt
Located in Bois-Colombes, FR
1970's Ceramic box by Mithé Espelt
Category
1970s French Vintage Mithé Espelt Decorative Objects
Materials
Ceramic, Wood
Mid Century Gold and Purple Ceramic Box with Flower by Mithé Espelt
By Mithé Espelt
Located in Toronto, ON
An exceptional mid century glazed ceramic box with liquid gold border and purple flower by famed artist, Mithé Espelt. The box lid is ceramic with a blackened wood base.
Born in 1923...
Category
Mid-20th Century French Mithé Espelt Decorative Objects
Materials
Ceramic, Wood
Sunflower Jewelry Box
By Mithé Espelt
Located in Paris, FR
Slight enamel skip on one corner
This wooden box is topped by a stamped earthenware lid adorned with burgundy enamel and a golden sunflower, offering a precious warm and luminous ha...
Category
1960s French French Provincial Vintage Mithé Espelt Decorative Objects
Materials
Gold Leaf
$1,129
Embossed Ceramic Box, Model "Flowers" by Mithé Espelt, France, 1970
By Mithé Espelt
Located in Paris, Ile-de-France
A rectangular chest with three flowers glazed in green, blue and white.
Crackled gold frame.
Wooden base with green felt at the back.
France,
Circa 1970
Dimensions :
Height ...
Category
1970s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Mithé Espelt Decorative Objects
Materials
Earthenware
Mid Century Pink and Blue Ceramic Box with Birds by Mithé Espelt
By Mithé Espelt
Located in Toronto, ON
An exceptional mid century glazed ceramic box with blue border and lavender & pink birds by famed artist, Mithé Espelt. The box lid is ceramic with a blackened wood base.
Born in 192...
Category
Mid-20th Century French Mithé Espelt Decorative Objects
Materials
Ceramic, Wood
Mid Century Pink and Purple Ceramic Box with Flowers by Mithé Espelt
By Mithé Espelt
Located in Toronto, ON
An exceptional mid century glazed ceramic box with purple and pink with flowers by famed artist, Mithé Espelt. The box lid is ceramic with a blackened wood base.
Born in 1923, Mithé ...
Category
Mid-20th Century French Mithé Espelt Decorative Objects
Materials
Ceramic, Wood
Box Birds
By Mithé Espelt
Located in Paris, FR
This wooden box is topped by a stamped earthenware lid decorated with bluish, green and white polychrome enamels. For Mithé Espelt, the object is an essential element of the boudoir....
Category
1960s French French Provincial Vintage Mithé Espelt Decorative Objects
Materials
Ceramic, Wood
$1,783
Peacock Ceramic Box by Mithé Espelt
By Mithé Espelt
Located in Saint-Ouen, IDF
Rectangular wooden box topped with a ceramic lid by Mithé Espelt. The ceramic showcases a unique peacock design, adorned with a cream glaze and crackled gold accents.
Bibliographie:...
Category
1960s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Mithé Espelt Decorative Objects
Materials
Ceramic
1970's Ceramic box by Mithé Espelt
By Mithé Espelt
Located in Bois-Colombes, FR
1970's Ceramic box by Mithé Espelt
France
Docu
Category
1970s French Vintage Mithé Espelt Decorative Objects
Materials
Ceramic, Wood
1970's Ceramic box by Mithé Espelt
By Mithé Espelt
Located in Bois-Colombes, FR
1970's Ceramic box by Mithé Espelt
Rare abstract modèle
France
Category
1970s Vintage Mithé Espelt Decorative Objects
Materials
Ceramic, Wood
1970's Ceramic box by Mithé Espelt
By Mithé Espelt
Located in Bois-Colombes, FR
1970's Ceramic box by Mithé Espelt
Rare piece
France
Category
1970s French Vintage Mithé Espelt Decorative Objects
Materials
Ceramic, Wood
1970's Ceramic box by Mithé Espelt
By Mithé Espelt
Located in Bois-Colombes, FR
1970's Ceramic box by Mithé Espelt
Rare modele
France
Documented in the book about the artist work
Category
1970s French Vintage Mithé Espelt Decorative Objects
Materials
Ceramic, Wood
Jewellery Box with Decorative Ceramic Lid by Mithé Espelt (circa 1960s)
By Mithé Espelt
Located in London, GB
Jewellery box with decorative ceramic lid by Mithé Espelt (circa 1960s). A series of yellow and green imperfect circles appear on the cover of the box like stepping stones in a garde...
Category
1960s French Vintage Mithé Espelt Decorative Objects
Materials
Ceramic
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About the artist: Born in Lunel in the South of France, Mithé Espelt (1923-2020) grew up in a family of affluent winegrowers and was very close to her grandfather who passed on his love for the arts and brought her into contact with major intellectuals and artists of the time. She rubbed shoulders with Jean Hugo, Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso, Christian Bérard and many others. She graduated from the Beaux-Arts school in Montpellier in 1942, and then studied at the Fontcarrade school where she took a special interest in ceramics. She began by designing buttons for fashion houses in Paris, before managing the entire production of buttons and jewellery at the Lydia Chartier workshop and collaborating with Line Vautrin, amongst others. At the end of the war, she returned to her native south, opened her studio and took advantage of the growing excitement around ceramics, particularly those from the town of Vallauris. To stand out and sustain the workshop business she started designing gilded jewellery...
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1960s French Vintage Mithé Espelt Decorative Objects
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Ceramic, Wood
H 2.56 in W 3.55 in D 3.75 in
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Mithé Espelt Ceramic Secret Box Moineau Model, 1968, France.
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Mithé Espelt decorative objects for sale on 1stDibs.
Mithé Espelt decorative objects are available for sale on 1stDibs. These distinctive items are frequently made of ceramic and are designed with extraordinary care. There are many options to choose from in our collection of Mithé Espelt decorative objects, although brown editions of this piece are particularly popular. Many of the original decorative objects by Mithé Espelt were created in the mid-century modern style in france during the 20th century. If you’re looking for additional options, many customers also consider decorative objects by Ravinet d'Enfert, Dominique Pouchain, and Les Argonautes. Prices for Mithé Espelt decorative objects can differ depending upon size, time period and other attributes — on 1stDibs, these items begin at $1,677 and can go as high as $3,500, while a piece like these, on average, fetch $2,527.