The Town, The People and The Pottery
Volume 24 Number 10
March 2023
March 2023
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.
In last month's article, we discussed a couple of items associated with Breton pardons...épingles and ribbons...prized possessions that are connected with traditional life in Brittany.
The épingles are brooches made of small glass beads or pearls sold by itinerant merchants set up during the pardon celebration; purchased by petit bretons, they were then presented to the petite bretonne who had captured his fancy.
At their next meeting...whether at a market, church or at another pardon...if the recipient showed up wearing it on the left side of her bodice, it meant the interest was reciprocal and the couple was official. If she wore it on the right, then the offer was not accepted. The girl kept the piece and it was not unheard of for a particularly pretty petite bretonne to proudly wear more than one épingle.
The ribbons we discussed in the last issue were also purchased at a pardon from the itinerant merchants...being imported, these pardon ribbons were a luxury item and were proudly worn by petite bretonnes.
The Musée départemental breton...one of Quimper's museums...functions as a "county" museum and has a large collection of items tracing the history of the Finistère department. It boasts a marvelous collection of vintage traditional costumes...like the one shown above that had been worn by a mid-19th century bride from the bigoudèn region of Finistère. Note the red pardon ribbon and the épingle worn on the left side of her embroidered and beribboned bodice.
The pardons were a religious celebration that also functioned as a place where young bretons met and romances flourished. In this issue, we'll take a look at another gathering opportunity...markets...and how they were depicted in Quimper pottery.
Many of the street names in Old Town Quimper reflect their historic use...such as rue des boucheries, where the butchers were located, and place au beurre, where the butter market took place.
Quimper's livestock market was held on the edge of Old Town and was serious business.
For the Henriot pottery, Mathurin Méheut (1882-1958 ) created this faïence documentation of the struggles of a Breton couple as they go about bringing their cows to market.
In this painting from the 1920s, an infant appears to distract a transaction, much to the dismay of the Breton on the right who hopes to return home without an animal, but with money in his pockets. The painting is by Pierre de Belay ( 1890-1947 ), who was born at the family home on Quimper's rue des boucheries into an artistic family. His father was a "Sunday painter" who counted Paul Gauguin, Apollinaire and Max Jacob as friends.
Pierre de Belay's sister, Berthe Savigny ( 1882-1958 ) turned to art after becoming partially deaf due to an accident. In the early 1920s, she began a collaboration with the HB pottery.
Entitled Le Marché, this Berthe Savigny figure for HB documents in faïence the sale of a couple of pigs.
This photograph shows just one of the shelves of the 1999 exhibition at the Musée de la Faïence. The theme for that year was a gathering of some of the favorite pieces belonging to the supporters of the museum; this shelf displayed three figures by Louis-Henri Nicot ( 1878-1944 ). The figures on the left depicts a Breton holding a piglet and the one on the right shows another taking a veal to market.
Standing in front of his market basket, a closer look at one of the Nicot figures reveals what seems to be a hint of tender emotion on the part of the petit breton.
Pigs show up in Quimper pottery in other forms and for other purposes...the one on the left is for flowers and the one on the right is a "piggy bank".
A "literary pig" pulling a cart filled with the writings of Émile Zola is the central motif of this Quimper plate.
The Keraluc pottery produced a series of terrines adorned with their intended contents...no mistaking that this one is destined for a delicacy based on pork.
Quimper's milk market was held in Place Médard.
This vintage postcard shows some vendors arriving at Place Medard with their product in its "original packaging".
A "going to market" Quimper scene created by Georges Fourrier in 1930...( Kemper is the Breton spelling for Quimper )...
Some of the vendors traveled from outlying farms, bringing large containers of milk by handcarts...
...after collecting the milk earlier back at the farm.
Here, the milking scene is the decorative motif on an unusual piece by an artist whose designs were produced at Henriot between 1927 and 1939...
...in the form of a milk pot, here the piece is shown as it was displayed in the 1999 exhibition. It's signed POL...an Henriot artist whose identity remains a mystery...perhaps it refers to a Pol Thépot, but there's no further or definite biographical information to date.
Alfred Beau's father-in-law, Émile Souvestre, documented the traditional legends told endlessly over many a Breton evening. In turn, Beau painted watercolors of scenes inspired by the legends. This painting is based on the story of Jean Rouge-Gorge...Jean Red-throat...a robin whose originally drab feathers are brightened as a result of his aid to the infant Jesus.
A circa 1880 PB plate with Beau's motif produced by the Porquier pottery...it depicts typical livestock found at a Breton market...a horse, a cow and a lamb.
A shepherdess from the island of Ouessant...about twelve miles off the coast of Brittany...the westernmost French landmass. The piece was made by Henriot after a mold by Réné-Yves Creston ( 1898-1964 ).
Going to market in Quimper was a social event as well...an opportunity to meet people as well as to buy the necessities.
Many a petite bretonne took great care in deciding what they wore to market...
...for the time spent mingling among the crowds...
...might just result in meeting that certain someone special !
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...with a double issue for July/August. 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 !