Piere Marie Mongis
Plat circulaire aux lambrequins, 1739 ou 1759
Faïence
Lyon, Musées Gadagne

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Covered dish (porringer)

Écuelle emblazoned with the arms of the Grand Dauphin, son of Louis XIV

© 1988 RMN / Daniel Arnaudet

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Upon rising, members of the royal family would drink broth for breakfast from two-handled bowls such as these. This silver-gilt bowl is the work of the Parisian goldsmith Sébastien Leblond. It was made in 1690-2 for the Louis XIV’s son, the Grand Dauphin, and is decorated accordingly: the pairs of dolphins forming the handles are, of course, the symbols of the Grand Dauphin. The chased ornamentation on the lid also incorporates dolphins either side of the intertwined letters “L” for Louis. The foliated scrollwork covering the center of the lid is characteristic of designs used by goldsmiths in the reign of Louis XIV.

Cache-pot en porcelaine De Gien XIX°

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Gien was founded in 1821 by Thomas Hall, an Englishman who wanted to introduce fine English earthenware manufacturing techniques in France.
Production first began with functional tableware, and then went on to make fancier dinnerware, decorative pieces and tableware emblazoned with notable families’ coats of arms.
The factory works non-stop on improving quality and developing artistic creativity. By following this philosophy, Gien has produced exceptional pieces, which it has presented at the various Universal Exhibitions from 1855 to 1900.
In the 20th Century, in spite of wars and other crises, modernization and creation continue.

Plat à ombilic

Attribué à la manufacture de l’Autruche
Nevers, vers 1660 
Faïence, émail stannifère, décor de grand feu
H. 6,7 ; L. 50,2 ; l. 41,3 cm
Achat, 1887 
Inv. 3952 
© Les Arts Décoratifs

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The Nevers manufactory was a French manufacturing center for faience in the city of Nevers. The first factory was started around 1588 by three Italian brothers, who brought the majolica tradition with them.

It is at the Nevers manufactory that Chinese-style blue and white wares were produced for the first time in France, with production running between 1650 and 1680.Chinese styles would then be taken up by factories in Normandy, especially following the foundation of the French East India Company in 1664.

Plat au serpent Bernard Palissy,

Terre vernissée France Vers 1560 L. 53 cm ECL 1142

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Bernard Palissy  was a French Huguenot potter, hydraulics engineer and craftsman, famous for having struggled for sixteen years to imitate Chinese porcelain.

His work attracted attention locally when, in 1548, the constable de Montmorency. Montmorency protected the potter and found him employment in decorating the Château d’Écouen with his glazed terra-cottas . The patronage of such an influential noble soon brought Palissy into fame at the French court. Although Palissy was Protestant, these nobles protected him from the ordinances of the parliament of Bordeaux, which, in 1562, seized the property of all the Protestants in this district. Palissy’s workshops and kilns were destroyed, but he himself was saved, and, by the interposition of the all-powerful constable, he was appointed inventor of rustic pottery to the king and the queen-mother.

Around 1563, under royal protection, he was allowed to establish a fresh pottery works in Paris in the vicinity of the royal palace of the Louvre. The site of his kilns indeed became afterwards a portion of the Tuileries Garden. For about twenty-five years from this date Palissy lived and worked in Paris. He appears to have been a personal favorite of Catherine de’ Medici, and of her sons, in spite of his Protestantism.

Working for the court, his productions passed through many phases, for besides continuing his rustic figurines he made a large number of dishes and plaques ornamented with scriptural or mythological subjects in relief, and in many cases he appears to have made reproductions of the pewter dishes of Francois Briot and other metal workers of the period. During this period he gave several series of public lectures on natural history, the entrance fee being one crown, a large fee for those days. His ideas of springs and underground waters were published in his Discours admirables, de la nature des eaux et fontaines, tant naturelles qu’artificielles, des metaux, des sels et salines, des pierres, des terres, du feu et des maux (Paris, 1580). He was one of the first Europeans to enunciate the correct theory of the origin of fossils and his practical application of Alexandrian theoretical works on hydraulics to the social issue of delivering public water to cities, were far in advance of the general knowledge of his time.