In his treatise on ceramic-making, Taxile Doat wrote “[in my] experimental laboratory...I win from the fire the wares which have brought me a gratifying success." The following four lots reveal both the experimental nature of the artist’s work as well as his success as a ceramist at the turn of the twentieth century. Whereas other ceramists benefited from a division of labor, Doat preferred to experiment with every stage of the production process—from modeling to firing. He advocated for the use of grand feu ceramics as well as the pâte-sur-pâte technique, which involves creating relief designs by applying multiple layers of slip onto an unfired body. The present works are marked "Sèvres," which is an indication of the artist's workshop's location rather than the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres—though Doat did produce work for the national manufactory until 1950 as well. The present lots demonstrate his expert control over these complex techniques and also reveal Doat’s reliance on motifs from Greek mythology, such as Minerva and the Amazons, as well as nature, which were both popular sources of imagery in fin-de-siècle France.