Topic: Andys back! French ART DECO Vase, FERJAC, any info welcome

[Andy]

Hi GMB, ive been away for 6 months, quick explanation, i had an ankle op in the Nuffield Orthopeadic centre, Oxford, wonderful place and staff, all went well, i was laid up for a while, wheelchair, no driving, hoped to see Marcus and get his book back in November, but my lift let me down. Then back on my feet, and managed to knock a screw and get an infection so back in hospital, for longer than the first time!
Anyway , its all 100% now, back to normal, trouble is , i need the other ankle done now, wot fun

So, saw this vase in local auction and had to have it! signed FERJAC, all i can find out is the company were contemporary with Lalique, Sabino, in the 1920s 1930s.
Does anyone know more about the company, its in none of my books, a few mentions on the web, including another vase like mine on invaluble.com (any one a member?) link,...
http://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/a-french-art-deco-black-glass-vase,-signed-ferjac-1-c-981hww0wip

Heres a couple of pics.

Thanks all,
Hope to get more involved again with the site soon,
Andy
 

[Ivo]

Welcome back on your feet! Takes a long time these things...
Ferjac is very elusive. There is not even mention of Ferjac in the Génie Verrier by Cappa - the most exhaustive work in that field.  I have never come across any reference to location, time of operation, type of work, if they were producers or dealers or retailers - nothing at all. I can just show you this fish - which is by Ferjac.

[Lustrousstone]

Welcome back Andy,  :hug: Magnificent vase!

[Mike M]

Hi

information on Ferjac is amazingly ellusive

They did a number of vases, bowls and some quite franky wonderful animals etc - (sparrows, chick, duckings, ducking on a pond, that fish and even a girl with a hoop) -all in the so called -Lalique - Sabino style - Almost certainly these were made by Chroisy le Roi. Which means Ferjac doesn't even have to be a glass maker.

Like Delvaux I've always assumed (without facts) that they were a 'trendy' 1930s Paris department store (or something similar)  I've never seen a vase quite like your one, but I've seen a few others that are equally atypical (inc. an amber vase enamelled with flowers)  So probably they had glass made other places too.

I'd love to be able to discover more!

cheers

Mike

[Andy]

Hi and thanks all,
Ivo, in fact your book was the only mention i could find!
I have been a bit further into the bowels of Google and found this link, 
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pol_Ferjac

Pol Ferjac, a French designer (my French is not good!)  1900-1979, whose true name was Paul Levain,
he went to a school for Beautiful arts, and worked with the French Resistance  !

I shall continue digging
Andy
 

Just had a brainwave, google is full of the French Actress Anouk Ferjac, i had a look on her wikipedia bio page,
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anouk_Ferjac#Biographie

And would you believe it, she was born in 1932, and her real name is  Anne- Marie LEVAIN  !!
How amazing!
Back to google!!  :hiclp: :hiclp: :hiclp:

[Ivo]

Great finds - although I am not sure the cartoonist from le Canard Enchaîné is the same person who designed vases and sculptures in the 1930s.

[Andy]

Hi Ivo,
im not so sure, i see that he was a illustrator/Cartoonist, from le Canard Enchaîné ( i presume a french paper?)
but if he was at a design school in Paris in the 30s, he may well have tried other avenues, that fish, is after all, quite a cartoony looking object!
I could only find a few other bits and pieces, signed Ferjac France, one is this pottery vase, from Spain,
http://cgi.ebay.es/COUPE-VASE-SIGNE-FERJAC-DESIGN-50-VINTAGE-DECO-1950_W0QQitemZ350158377743QQcmdZViewItemQQptZFR_YO_MaisonJardin_Decoration_ObjetsdeDecoration?hash=item350158377743&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14.l1262
Obviously has similarities with my vase, also a funny little pottery Simca car.

Surely if there was a store in France called Ferjac, there would be more of a trail to follow! It would be nice to ask Anouk Ferjac if her Father designed these objects! I will work on that one !
Cheers
Andy

I will add link to car as its a bit shorter than the other one!
http://cgi.ebay.fr/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250378183819

[Andy]

A Year on, other ankle done!
I may have an interesting clue on 'Ferjac'
It depends on a phone call this weekend,
If my theory is correct, I need help from the experts on the board to put in into 'print' somewhere,

If im wrong, well , never mind!

Watch this space!
(if im wrong , i will tell the tale anyway!)

Andy

PS , its basically a message on my answerphone from Anouk Ferjac, ! Its too late tonight to call her
back, but i will try tomorrow !

[Andy]

Well, ive just had a lovely , rather difficult conversation, ( because of language )
with Anouk Ferjac, a delightful, and quite famous french Actress, whos 77 years of age,
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anouk_Ferjac

Very polite and proud of her father Pol Ferjac. I explained that i knew her Father became a
cartoonist, and that he went to art college in Paris in the 1930s, (wikipedia says École des beaux-arts,
Une école des beaux-arts est une école qui forme aux disciplines artistiques dites des beaux-arts : dessin, peinture, gravure, sculpture ; à la photographie ; aux arts graphiques, et aux nouveaux médias électroniques)

Although a bit inconclusive, Anouk believes her father did a lot of designs,when young,at college, and seems to think that
colleagues arranged for them to be made, and believes Glass is very possibly some of these.
Madame Ferjac doesnt do computers, so no email, she has asked me to write to her, so i will do that, with some copies of Wikipedia, anything else i can find, and i will send her a photo of the vase, and signature.

I think its entirely possible at a top 1930s Paris Art college, that there were facilities to have the glass or
ceramics made , probably in france by a good manufacturer, it would be nice to find a factory where the glass
was made!
I said to Anouk, it would be nice to know more facts, so my friends in the glass world can put it in
writing on websites or books so the information is always available!
So, nothing definite, but hopefully a bit closer to an answer on the Ferjac mystery.
If anyone has any other photos of Ferjac items, could i have them and send them to Madame Ferjac?
Ivo, can i use your fish?
All suggestions welcome,
Cheers for now,
Andy

[Mike M]

Hi

Here are a few you may use

all signed Ferjac

cheers

Mike