EGG CUPS IN THE CANOPY
À la Mère de Famille teams up with ceramist Jacques Monneraud for an Easter collection at the height of imagination.
Paris's oldest chocolate factory, founded in 1761 (making it a very respectable 265 years old!), a living temple of gourmet delights and tradition, invites a unique talent each year to celebrate Easter with them. Blending history and artistic avant-garde, the House has set its sights on Jacques Monneraud, a ceramist designer from the Southwest, to re-enchant this holiday through an inspired dialogue between chocolate and ceramics.
« From our meeting, a true crush was born. More than a collaboration, a natural resonance between two sensitive and creative worlds.
The Dolfi family »
Since his beginnings as creative director in advertising until his return to material in 2021, Jacques Monneraud has imposed a poetic and instinctive gaze on clay, shaping forms where the hand finds the long time of the gesture and the eye, the silent vertigo of surprise. A former advertiser, dubbed "the illusionist of the earth", he constantly plays with the potter's wheel to invite matter to reinvent itself.
For this unique collaboration, Jacques Monneraud translates his universe to that of À la Mère de Famille's chocolate creations. The House was captivated by his stunningly beautiful and delicate trompe l'oeil cardboard sculptures, and by his meticulous and deeply sensitive approach to material. Where ceramic displays salient lines and a matte complexion, chocolate responds with its generous curves and free surface that catches the light. From this encounter arises an obvious dialogue: Jacques Monneraud builds a bridge between two worlds, giving the utilitarian object that is the egg cup a quasi-sculptural dimension, at the boundary of art and gourmandise.
« With these egg cups, I wanted to create a bridge between our two worlds. It was also obvious to me that these chocolates deserved a certain height. The result is a joyful universe, dominating the canopy of imagination, where our eyes jump from one piece to another to collect treats. » - Jacques Monneraud
A collection of four egg cups was born from this encounter: refined and sculptural, in a "tea dust" enamel, for a matte and delicate finish. Each holds an egg to be peeled, composed of an almond-hazelnut praline covered with a dark or milk chocolate shell, like a suspended treasure.
Practical information
Limited series available exclusively at the historic À la Mère de Famille boutique
35 rue du faubourg Montmartre – Paris IX and on the eshop
- Small (H 11 cm): €50
- Medium (H 15 cm): €60
- Large (H 18 cm): €70
- Extra Large (H 20 cm): €80
About Jacques Monneraud
Jacques Monneraud is a ceramist and designer based in the southwest of France. Before dedicating himself to ceramics, he had a career as a creative director in advertising in Paris, during which he was awarded numerous international distinctions, including a Gold Lion at the Cannes Festival. In 2021, he left this environment to reconnect with a manual and instinctive practice. Coming from a family of artists and artisans – a painter and sculptor mother, a cabinetmaker grandfather, a painter great-grandfather – this return to material became an obvious choice. At the potter's wheel, Jacques Monneraud rediscovered gesture, long time, and pure creation.
