At the age of 13 he becomes apprentice decorator with Legras, after which he is engaged as a decorator for glass and porcelain at atelier Prestat in Paris.
In 1907 he is moves to the Cristalleries de Baccarat, where he decorates luxury glass objects as covered vessels and high footed glasses, that are shown in the exposition de l'Est de la France in 1909 in Nancy.
After W.W.1 he is engaged by Marcel Goupy where he worked until 1922. After that he becomes artistic director at the Établissements Leune in Paris, where he designs numbrous motives for vases and other luxury objects of art. At that time he meets Odette Chatrousse (1896-1989), ceramic decorator and apprentice of Jean Mayodon, who enables him to execute own work in her workshop, inherited from her grandfather, the sculptor Émile Chatrousse. From now on he regularly receives medals, amongst which the gold medal on the famous Exposition des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris. His work mainly finds its expression in geometric motives, cascades of stylised flowers, under water scenes and female motivs in Art Deco style in rich colored often translucide and opaliscent enamels, with gold enamel accents.
Together with his wife Odette he reates a series of ceramic objects, mainly submarine subjects provided with their common monogram oHc for the names Odette Chatrousse and Heligenstein.
