The Town, The People and The Pottery

Volume 23  Number 5
October 2021

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.

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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.

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...following his enterprise through the French Revolution, the beginnings of local competition in the marketplace and the inevitable effects of death and taxes. We focused first on the factory that started it all...what came to be popularly known as HB Quimper or La Grande Maison and then turned to those that followed...the Eloury/Porquier pottery, and then after that, another competing pottery...one that came to be known as Henriot.

​Since we're reviewing the history of Quimper's potteries in chronological order based on the date of their opening, the next up was the Fouillen pottery with Keraluc, HB-Henriot, FAB and some independent studios slated among the subjects to follow.

Now into our 23rd year of monthly articles about Quimper, for the past few issues we have been documenting the history of the Fouillen pottery. Previously, we had gone over biographical information...Paul Fouillen was born in 1899, first came to Quimper in the early 1920s, etc. We then began looking at examples of his work while employed at the HB pottery in an effort to trace his path from the pieces he created during his earlier days as an employee at HB to those made when he was running  his own business.

We wrote of his initial work at HB when in the early 1920s, he was responsible for completing the central motifs of some of HB's most elaborate pieces. 

Recognizing his talent early on, HB put Fouillen to work painting the intricate motifs based on the paintings of Théophile Deyrolle...like this platter's "going to market" scene...

...and this scene of a fisherman's family painted using the artistically-challengingtechnique of camiëu blue.

Soon promoted to be the head of one of the factory's artists' studios, Fouillen produced an incredible body of original designs during his time at HB...

...like this platter from his pëcheur series of pieces celebrating the daily activities surrounding the Brittany ports...

...and this Odetta piece with a stylized petit breton...just one of the 75 different designs Fouillen created for HB's line of decorative stoneware.

We wrote about how in 1926, Fouillen...while still employed at HB...partnered with his brother-in-law and rented a nearby garage where they produced items on glass, wood, leather and metal...

...like this wooden tray with its stylized petite bretonne.

We discussed how, soon after the birth of their son, Maurice, Paul and his wife Anna left their jobs at the HB factory to fully embrace their entrepreneurial leap of faith. In the early days of the Fouillen factory, production continued to be limited to decorating other supports. It would wait until the mid-1930s for Fouillen began to make pottery on his own...lacking a kiln of his own, the pieces were fired at the Henriot factory.

We reported that the 1940s brought the Nazi Occupation...resulting in Fouillen's business being severely curtailed to the point of being practically non-existent. But once the War ended, his innovative spirit was once more evident as his was the first pottery in Quimper to utilize electric kilns...a technology that allowed for more precise production. We ended our discussion with a sampling of Fouillen production from the last half of the 1940s.

In this issue, we begin by presenting pieces produced at the Fouillen pottery during the 1950s....

Paul Fouillen's vision involved a change from the expected motifs and forms. He strove to change the public's image of Quimper pottery.  To this end, he hired traditional turners to form the pieces, but often manipulated the raw shapes to suit his imagination.

Paul Fouillen at work.

So he'd tweak a traditional form...

...as in this piece dated 1951, curling and manipulating the border in order to accentuate the portrait of Vincent Van Gogh which Fouillen painted in the center.

During the 1950s, the pottery had 20 employees who didn't work within the confines of a standard catalog, choosing instead to be free to constantly evolve. Paul personally added to this spirit with the creation of numerous unique pieces...

...like this 1952 plaque honoring Toulouse-Lautrec.

Pieces from this time period varied from a figural, horse-drawn cider service...

...with motifs testifying that early employees included artists who had earlier been involved in the pyrography products...

...to a kaleidoscopic view of motifs from nature like this innovative artichoke form and décor...

...to pieces demonstrating Fouillen's interest in the cubist movement as illustrated in this 1953 café scene...

...to his passion for combining abstract motifs with varying decorative finishes. The majority of Fouillen's production during this time period used the basic underglaze technique of decoration, but for this piece a matte sanded surface was used.

A gallery of Fouillen from the 50's:

The adventure was a family success...Anna handled the administrative duties and after completing his military service, Maurice joined in as well. Fouillen pottery was sold in some 80 different stores as attested to by these faïence tile signs posted in Quimper's train station...

All this was to change when Paul suffered a stroke and died suddenly at the age of 58. So, in 1959, Maurice, then in his early 30s, took over the management of employees many years his senior in both age and experience.

​Production continued...

Many of the pieces exhibit themes similar to those imagined by his father and Maurice further respected his father's legacy by continuing the Paul Fouillen factory marking,  adding "MFouillen" to pieces made under his auspices. 

In the 1970s, the pottery issued a series of plates re-creating earlier designs, but included a factory signature so that they wouldn't be confused with the original versions.

Maurice managed the staff that varied from 10 to 15 employees until 1980, when he retired and the Fouillen pottery permanently ceased production.  He chose to end the history of Fouillen pottery rather than turn the reigns over to another who he feared might "twist" the vision of his father.  He continued to create a very limited number of ceramic pieces, choosing instead to paint on canvas. 

Maurice Fouillen died last December at the age of 92.

His was a life devoted to the arts and to Quimper pottery in particular...and a personal cherished memory is when he graciously offered his congratulations for my meager contribution to the "cause". 

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. ...and be sure to check your computer settings...because sometimes unless you change them, we end up in your SPAM folder !