Camille and Paul Claudel’s second cousin François Didier-Claudel is also a true artist. As a childhood friend entrusted him with the restoration of a stove belonging to an inhabitant of Epinal, the work done was so spectacular that the customer did not recognise his stove anymore. Thus, François became an earthenware stove restorer and creator, an activity occasionally practised by his grandfather.

A GROWING REPUTATION

By word of mouth, François acquired a certain reputation, so that the number of earthenware stoves to be restored increased rapidly. Among his first customers, some castle owners as the Countess of Saint-Seine in Dijon or the Count of Mitry in the Meurthe & Moselle departement, but also the Saint-Clement’s Earthenware Manufacture in Lunéville.

BIRTH OF A LEGEND

It has something of a "success story" : François Didier-Claudel was used to attend fairs and exhibitions with quite a reasonable success as one day, on the occasion of a road race in Evaux-et-Mesnil, he decided to exhibit some stoves along the course. A journalist was there an wrote an article about him, then came the TV. A legend was born.

SCUPULOUS RESTORATION

To assist his restoration work, François has an exceptional documentation at his disposal, consisting of art and collection books, ancient catalogues and advertising brochures describing and showing bygone and forgotten models. This documentation has been recently completed by a catalogue of 1913, in which the different tints of stoves are detailed and the famous Stanislas series represented.