Rare Square Elchinger Matte Black Vase with Chartreuse Interior, France, c. 1950

Elchinger took over his family's ceramic business in 1936, developed and modernized the plant and built a second in 1975 on another site. He installed the first six-pass continuous electric furnace in France and thus industrialized a faience production. He especially strengthened the manufacture of the ceramic saturator becoming the leading manufacturer in Europe. Driven by the craze for Vallauris ceramics, the Alsatian manufacturer gained strong notoriety with its productions of the years 1950–60. These achievements, vases and pitchers with clean forms, were distinguished from the exuberant achievements of the workshops of the South.