Born in Sèvres, Ernest Chaplet apprenticed at the Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres beginning in 1848 at the tender age of thirteen before moving on to produce painted earthenware for nearly twenty years at the Laurin factory in Bourg-la-Reine. In 1875 Chaplet was hired by an experimental studio at Auteuil owned by Charles Haviland where he advanced and perfected the technique of barbotine. The Auteuil atelier closed in 1881 but, at the behest of Chaplet, Haviland opened a second in Vaugirard in 1882. He spent several years at the Vaugirard atelier, eventually taking full control of it after Haviland withdrew his support. There he produced painted, unglazed stoneware in the peasant pottery style, and frequently collaborated with Albert-Louis ...