On October 26th 1945, four crazy guys: A. BOUTAUD, Louis DANGON, Slavic PALEY and RAUDE move into an old disused factory in ACCOLAY, Yonne in Burgundy. They come out of the professional school in Macon where their teacher was in ceramics, among others, Alexander KOSTANDA.

They make artefacts in ceramics, such as brooches, jewels, but it is mainly with buttons in 1946 that they first become successful, through an order of 300 buttons for Christian DIOR New Look collection. The little workshop gets larger, or more exactly the community of 80 people sharing the same activity, religion and ideology. At the end of 1947, a first professional thrower named BARACHANT is hired to start a production of utilitarian pieces of ceramic: ceramic buttons are getting out of fashion. The first sale at St Martin fair in Auxerre in 1948 is a success and in 1949 monochrome series appear small while the concept of a community is fading. In 1952, when the Canadian painter Rafael GIAROUSSU arrives, the production is very important, combining various technical innovations and inspirations derived from a political, cultural or sociological event, yet not devoid of humor and fantasy. The ACCOLAY
production is sold on the national roads RN6 and RN7, among other potters’ production and thus enormous quantities of ceramic pieces are offered, including the best and the worst. However, with the advent of May 68, society changes.
ACCOLAY, along with VALLAURIS, find it hard to survive and decline. ACCOLAY production tries to adapt. Little by little, resin and metal replace ceramics, then in the 80s BOUTAUD dies and the adventure comes to an end in 1983.

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