Théo Perrot (1856-1942) began his career as a painter in Paris and London and did not exhibit as a ceramist until the age of 51 in 1907 at the Salon de Nevers. He was born in Arquian, near the pottery region of Puisaye where ceramist Jean Carriès lived and worked as of about 1888. In the early 1890s, Perrot returned to his hometown and came under the influence of what became known as the School of Carriès; he would go on to collaborate with other members of this unofficial school including Georges Hoentschel, Émile Grittel, and Paul Jeanneney. Perrot’s early work was in line with Carriès’s and featured drip-glazing, gilt accents, and textured surfaces. Over time, however, he developed a unique, rustic style with modeled zoomorphic, vegetal, or marine forms. Perrot exhibited his wares at the Musée Galliera in 1911 and the Société Lyonnaise des Beaux-Arts in 1912 but, after failing to secure financial backing for his pursuits, abandoned ceramics to return to painting in Lyon and Paris.
