Paul Vera Coffee and Cocktail Tables

This long side table has a ceramic top assembled from tiles created by the master ceramist Paul Vera, each depicting a fanciful vignette or design and glazed in black and white. The base, in wrought iron, is assembled of long thin legs, and possesses a shelf, swirling on its sides and latticed at its center. This work is typical of Véra’s output during the Second World War. Despite being removed from his home by German forces, he continued his artistic research and production, albeit with more modest means, and explored a variety of ceramic possibilities. He created tiles with exuberant and whimsical characters such as peasants and gardeners (his brother André Véra was a famous gardener) in the kiln of his friend Jean-Paul Luthringer, a sculptor in St-Germain-en-Laye. At Salon de l’Imagerie 1946, he exhibited models of ceramic tiles for bathrooms, swimming pools, fish shops and post offices. That same year, La Maîtrise of Galeries Lafayette department store ordered ceramic tiles for the decoration of an oak sideboard by Marcelle Maisonnier.   The Musée Paul & André Véra of St Germain-en-Laye has in its collection a ceramic tobacco pot with very similar figures of doves and characters painted in white on a dark brown background. This box was given as a wedding gift by Paul Véra...