Biography

Félix Optat Milet, France (1838-1911)

Félix Optat Milet is the son and grandson of potters in a village of pottery factories.
He entered the Manufacture de Sèvres as a modeller in 1862: his brother Ambroise was already working there as Director of ovens and pastes. He then became a decorator, and stayed at the Manufacture until 1879.
In 1866 he requested permission from the Town Hall of Sèvres to build a furnace close to the Manufacture. He obtained it, and thus started an independent business which would last until 1971, successively managed by his son Paul Milet (from 1890 to 1931) and his grandson Henri Milet (from 1931 to 1971).

This oven will allow the firing of earthenware and stoneware. Everyone is welcome there, and the workshop will gradually turn into a factory with turners, decorators, and even sales people. Very quickly, the number of works produced is significant. More than a thousand pieces each year and this for 25 years.
He has a store at this same location to sell his production on site.
A very large pair of vases, one meter thirty in height, won a gold medal at the Universal Exhibition of 1889. The first vase represents a scene with deer and the second a scene with wild boars.

Meanwhile, the collaboration with the Manufacture de Sèvre continues, including its participation in the work to find the formula of copper red invented by the Chinese.

In the 1880s, Félix Optat Milet founded the Delvaux boutique, at 18 rue royale in Paris, with Clément Massier, intended to sell everyday art objects, such as decorated glass, earthenware, services. The origins of these can be very diverse, although Haviland – Limoges is probably the main supplier. The glass factories of Clichy, the factory of Choisy-le-Roi, the establishments of Fontainebleau or Montigny are also part of the catalog. This shop will hold its place until the 1970s.

Throughout his career, Félix Optat Milet boasts a prodigious creativity reinforced by strong relationships with his contemporaries, artists eager to get out of a hieratic, conventional, « Napoleonic » or « royal » style.
There is in the work of Optat Milet a bias of gaiety and joie de vivre in reaction to the society of his time.
Some museums present a limited number of pieces by Optat Milet, and some reproductions on posters are available in RMN shops (Réunion des Musées Nationaux).