André Metthey (or Méthey, the name under which he signed his first works) was a ceramist born on June 4, 1871 in Laignes, Côte d'Or. André Metthey is the eldest of a family of four children; very quickly, the family settles in Dijon. At the age of twelve, André Metthey began working for a marble maker and took courses in industrial art at the École des Beaux-Arts in Dijon. André Metthey left Dijon with his family for Paris. Between November 1892 and September 1893, he did his military service in the 4th infantry regiment in Auxerre. 

During a drawing contest, Metthey won Garnier's book on ceramics, which was the beginning of his vocation. At the end of the 1890's he became an ornamental sculptor and worked for a time for the famous piano manufacturer Pleyel, Lyon, Wolff & Co. In 1901, André Metthey married Emma Louise Meunier and had a son, Jean. That same year he moved to Asnières-sur-Seine where he devoted himself fully to the art of ceramics and exhibited for the first time at the Salon des indépendants.