Roger GUERIN flamed stoneware vase, shape 132/C, ca 1920

Roger Thérèse Ferdinand Guerin, born on February 7, 1896, was the son of Jules Guérin, a gamekeeper, and Eugénie Mormal [1] . He studied at the Industrial School of Châtelet and then chemistry at the University of Labour in Charleroi, where he attended lectures by Willem Delsaux. He trained on the potter's wheel in the Albert Gilles pottery workshops, where he worked alongside Edgard Aubry, and in the Grégoire-Bailleux workshops in Châtelet [3] . He completed several internships at the Sèvres porcelain factory. In 1918, he joined the workshop of his former professor, Willem Delsaux, at the University of Charleroi [2] ; the L'Escarboucle pottery, which had opened in 1911 in Bouffioulx. Guerin married Camille Delsaux, a painter and the daughter of his professor. His stoneware pieces are signed R. Guerin. In 1919, the Roger Guerin Pottery cooperative was founded, encouraged by Jules Destrée and Paul Pastur. From then on, it produced sculptural objects, and from 1920 also tiles, notably for newsstands and tram stops in Liège. It also worked on the pediment of the Natural History Museum in Brussels, the Montparnasse train station in Paris, and the stairwell of the Charleroi courthouse. Guérin created earthenware pieces with salt glazes based on his own designs, including a floral bowl (Ghent, Norbert and Georgette Poulain-Caese collection), as well as pieces based on models by Belgian and foreign sculptors.
In 1929, the company's name changed: it became Société Anonyme des Grès de Bouffioulx, where he collaborated with several artists. From then on, his works were signed Guérin. From 1930 to 1947, he taught at the École Industrielle Commerciale et de Dessin in Châtelet [2] . In 1932, he left Société des Grès de Bouffioulx to set up his own business. Also in 1932, he taught at the Institut Supérieur des Arts Décoratifs de la Cambre in Brussels. In 1935, the SA was dissolved. In 1938, he created a new company SA Grès de Bouffioulx. After the Second World War, he expanded his business with his son, Jules Guérin, who turned stoneware and developed industrial and architectural ceramics. In 1951, he created a third SA (Société Anonyme Grès de Bouffioulx).
Roger Guérin died in 1954 in Bouffioulx; his wife and son took over the management of the company, which went bankrupt in 1970. (Source: Wikipedia)