The Parisian Master of Imitation: Edmé Samson and the Art of Reproduction Edmé Samson, born in Paris in 1810, occupies a fascinatingly ambiguous position in the history of ceramics. He wasn’t a creator of wholly original forms, but rather a remarkably skilled interpreter—a copyist who elevated reproduction to an art form. His firm, Samson, Edmé et Cie, founded in 1845, became synonymous with exquisite recreations of earlier porcelain…