The Massier family of potteries was a veritable dynasty, going back to the eighteenth century under Pierre Massier. Inheriting the mantle, Jacques Massier and his two sons, Clément and Delphin, and their cousin Jérome, focused their energies on creating artistic ceramics in the town of Vallauris, developing a signature style of decoration under enamel for faience and stoneware with metallic highlights.

In the second half of the nineteenth century Les Massier flourished, and Clément sought out artists to create experimental works with, among them the symbolist Lévy-Dhurmer, with whom he collaborated over a number of years. While Delphin preferred delicate tones, Clément’s pieces were distinguished by strong iridescent surfaces and unusual shapes, often contorted or serpentine. Influenced by Art Nouveau, Renaissance, and Hispano-Moresque pottery and designs from the Far East, his work was praised in his lifetime for its “originality and technical excellence” and the effect of his brilliant translucent glazes for its similar effect to Limoges enamels.

Clément won a gold medal at the 1889 Exposition Universelle and presented fifteen pieces at the 1898 Salon of the Society of French Artists. By the end of the century the business was thriving, and Les Massier employed sixty-five workers. In 1900, after his wife’s death, he incorporated her first initial “M” for Marie into his signature.