The Town, The People and The Pottery
Volume 20 Number 8
January 2019
January 2019
The western-most part of the continent of Europe, this is a 1683 map of Brittany. Quimper is located to the left of center, above a small island and noted with its name at that time...Quimper-Corentin.
Quimper...pronounced "kem-pair"...is a town in northwestern France. It is also a people and a pottery.
To the people of Quimper, the town name is Kemper, which in their language describes a confluence of rivers. ("Quimper" is a somewhat nonsensical rendition as not all the Breton dialects have a "Q" and a true French pronunciation would be different from the actual "kem-pair"). At any rate, "confluence of rivers" is an apt description, as the town is situated at the juncture of two rivers, the Odet and the Steir. Two other rivers, the Jet and the Frout, are close-by, but travel underground through the town limits. Historically, this close proximity to rivers meant an ideal place to establish a pottery factory and thus, Quimper has been a pottery town for centuries. Its "recent" history of continuous pottery production begins in 1708. (Previous accounts put the date as 1690, but history is not written in stone and recent findings have provided further information).
By the last decade of the nineteenth century, three pottery factories were operating in the town of Quimper. One was the Porquier factory, another was known as the Grande Maison or De la Hubaudière factory, and the third, owned by Jules Henriot, was called the Faïencerie d’Art Breton. Tin-glazed earthenware, known in France as faïence, was a popular product, especially pieces that were hand-painted with scenes depicting life in the region of Brittany.
The making of faïence is an art. Especially in the early days, prior to the introduction of more modern methods, when both the technical and artistic skills necessary to make a piece of faïence were quite daunting. Extremely difficult to master its making, I've been known to liken faïence to being the "puff pastry" of pottery production.
The use of an opaque tin glaze is one factor that distinguishes faïence from other types of pottery...pieces made by this process were known as faïence in France, Spain, Germany, and Austria; in the Netherlands, they were called Delft; in England, the term was Delftware; and in Renaissance Italy, such pieces were called maiolica...not to be confused with majolica, that's actually a trade name of the Minton pottery in England for a Victorian-era product made using substantially different glazes and production methods.
The tradition of Quimper faïence production continues today. But much like the comparison of a Model T with a current Ford Motor Company product, today’s Quimper is very different from vintage Quimper. In many fields of collecting there is a line of demarcation; for Quimper pottery that line is World War II. Modern techniques and machinery introduced in the days after World War II resulted in the creation of a different product. Vintage Quimper refers to pieces made prior to that time period; later production falls into the collectible genre.
Here at www.oldquimper.com, we specialize in vintage Quimper and invite you to come along as we further explore old Quimper...The Town, The People, and The Pottery. If you've just joined us, since 1999 we've been using these pages to extol upon the beauty and intrigue of vintage Quimper pottery and, at the same time, do some "traveling"...and, indeed, over the years, we have visited some of the most picturesque towns of Brittany...each one delightfully different.
Each month, this depiction of King Gradlon by Quimper-born artist Pierre Toulhoat (1923-2014) will herald in a new article about Quimper...The Town, The People and The Pottery.
For the past several issues of www.oldquimper.com, we've been presenting a series of articles designed to provide a primer on the history of Quimper...a sort of abridged and updated version of the story behind The Town, The People and The Pottery. We hope to educate collectors...correcting some long-standing and stubborn misinformation...so that fans of Quimper pottery will become more comfortable with the whys and wherefores of Quimper and what makes it so special. It's also a good lesson in remembering that history is not written in stone and that our knowledge of it can indeed change.
Reminder: in many instances, clicking on the photos will lead to a larger image and please take note that the names and dates given may be entirely different from what you hear or read from various sources. This is an updated and corrected history of Quimper pottery, designed to provide a clear illustration of how styles and techniques from Provence, Nevers and Rouen came together to create the enduring fascination that is Quimper pottery!
For the past several issues of www.oldquimper.com, we've been presenting a series of articles designed to provide a primer on the history of Quimper...a sort of abridged and updated version of the story behind The Town, The People and The Pottery. We hope to educate collectors...correcting some long-standing and stubborn misinformation...so that fans of Quimper pottery will become more comfortable with the whys and wherefores of Quimper and what makes it so special. It's also a good lesson in remembering that history is not written in stone and that our knowledge of it can indeed change.
Reminder: in many instances, clicking on the photos will lead to a larger image and please take note that the names and dates given may be entirely different from what you hear or read from various sources. This is an updated and corrected history of Quimper pottery, designed to provide a clear illustration of how styles and techniques from Provence, Nevers and Rouen came together to create the enduring fascination that is Quimper pottery!
In case you just joined our on-going discussion of the history of Quimper pottery…we've made our way from the very beginning of "modern-day" Quimper pottery...Pierre Bousquet's founding of a factory in 1708...gone through the French Revolution, the beginnings of local competition in the marketplace, and the inevitable affects of death and taxes. We are focusing first on the factory that started it all...what came to be popularly known as HB Quimper or La Grande Maison and will pick up later on the competitors...Porquier, Henriot, Fouillen, Kéraluc, etc.
We're now up to the latter part of the first quarter of the 20th century…and hopefully regular readers have been able to make sense out of a history that, so far, includes a trio of Pierres plus a couple of Marie-Jeannes and Guillaumes.
We're now up to the latter part of the first quarter of the 20th century…and hopefully regular readers have been able to make sense out of a history that, so far, includes a trio of Pierres plus a couple of Marie-Jeannes and Guillaumes.
When we left off last month, Jules Verlingue had taken on a partner, Louis Bolloré, the factory had moved to a new location in Locmaria and had added experienced artisans and updated equipment. The firm continued to be known as the Grande Maison-HB, a much-shortened version of its official name...Société Jules Verlingue, Bolloré et Cie, Etablissment de la Grande Maison-HB.
We also wrote earlier of HB's successes during the first years following the end of World War I...the introduction of new techniques and motifs and the addition of unusual and avant-guard styles made Quimper a household word on both sides of the Atlantic. Regular readers will recall that one of the innovative series, Les Provinces Français, centered on themes inspired by the costumes and customs of regions other than Brittany. Here are a couple of examples of HB Quimper pieces featuring Normandy-inspired motifs:
The two designs shown above as well as a great number of the motifs in this particular series were the work of Paul Fouillen (1899-1958).
Paul Fouillen was born in Lorient. His father died before he was three years old and his mother soon after moved to Pontivy where Paul showed an early interest in music and drawing. The records regarding his education are incomplete, but we know for sure that Fouillen settled in Quimper sometime after March of 1921. At that time, Fouillen played the flute in a Quimper orchestra...which didn't pay much...and it is thought that the head of the orchestra played a part in his obtaining a job at the HB pottery.
Part of Fouillen's training and apprenticeship at HB required that he recreate on faïence the designs of others...including Théophile Deyrolle and René Quillivic...here are some examples of Fouillen's earliest work at HB:
This large charger features a scene by Deyrolle recreated on faïence by Paul Fouillen
A closer look reveals the beginnings of the emergence of Fouillen's own style...especially in the facial features and the distinctive treatment of the botou-koad...that's Breton for wooden shoes.
In this example, Fouillen more closely followed the style of Deyrolle.
But if you look at this detail view...just below the "HB Quimper" is the signature of "P. Fouillen"...this was an unusual privilege and attests to the meteoric rise of the young Fouillen.
Here are a couple of examples of Paul Fouillen's treatment of designs of René Quillivic:
The motifs were created by Quillivic, but the actual painting was done by Fouillen. Soon after, Fouillen was promoted to serve as a chef d'atelier...studio boss...in charge of the formation of painters and the execution of a specific range of motifs.
That's Fouillen in the center of this vintage publicity post card:
That's Fouillen in the center of this vintage publicity post card:
Fouillen's devotion to the business extended to his personal life as well, for he was to marry another HB employee...although the former Anna Patérour worked in administration, not as a painter/decorator.
As the head of a studio, Fouillen was now free to propose his own designs....here's a page from the HB archives with his ideas for the regional theme of Auvergne:
...and here are a couple of those very motifs "in action":
Many of Fouillen's early designs for HB depicted the traditions of daily Breton life using the angular techniques found in the new "modern" art. He is noted for creating several lines including a colorful series called Pêcheur or "The Fisherman" and another called "Port". Each piece relates a part of the happenings one would find everyday along the quays...some with borders inspired by coral, others with ships' wheels, signal flags, fishing nets or ocean waves...here are some examples:
More of Fouillen's work at HB during the period of 1923-1924:
Whew....that's a lot of wonderful Quimper pottery; Each piece has such personality! It's no surprise that Fouillen's talent was so quickly recognized and put to such good use!
A number of these early plates have the "morse-code" hash-tag signature of "#"...sometimes in addition to a Paul Fouillen signature, sometimes not. It was originally thought that the "#" signature was the symbol used by Fouillen when he first began at HB, and that all pieces with that mark had been personally painted by him, but that has since come to be questioned. It is now believed that the "#" is the mark of an unknown painter/decorator who produced complete pieces on his or her own as well as the borders or accent work on a great number of pieces where the central motif was painted by Fouillen. Hence the confusion!
That's it for this issue...our exploration of Brittany...its towns, its people and its pottery...will continue in our next webisode. We publish a new issue on or about the first of each month. If you would like an email reminder when a new issue comes out, please contact us at oldquimper@yahoo.com.