The Town, The People and The Pottery
Volume 25 Number 1
June 2023
June 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 extol the virtues of vintage Quimper pottery 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 share the beauty and intrigue of vintage Quimper pottery and, at the same time, do some "traveling" in the Brittany region...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 few months, we've been discussing the markets in Brittany and how they were not just about commerce and acquiring provisions, but how they also served as community gatherings...and, in many cases, a place where young Bretons met and romances flourished. We showed you old photographs of the historic areas of Quimper where various products were sold and traded...including the specific places for buying and trading cattle, sheep, pigs, milk, poultry, eggs and various vegetables.
If a hundred years ago a household in Brittany didn't raise their own chickens, then this is who they would turn to...a poultry merchant.
Markets being such an important part of the daily life in Brittany, in this issue, we'll show you additional products and sites along with colorful examples of market-related activities that made their way onto the motifs used on Quimper pottery. Of course, just the going to the market in itself was an event...and one had to have the proper basket, the right clothes, etc.
A nineteenth century artist's view of a market in Quimper. On the left, a petite bretonne is depicted having her hair cut and on the right, a glimpse at what appears to be an earnest conversation.
The market place conversation shown above...
...appears on an exuberant Henriot rococo porte-carte and appears to be more flirtatious in nature.
For some, going to market was a more serious affair...
...as reflected in this wonderful Henriot figure by Jim-Éugène Sévellec.
...somehow, you just know that the best chicken is going home in her basket !
The simple act of going to a market was such an event that it warranted numerous representations in Quimper pottery:
This Breton couple...
...appear on a piecrust-form HR Quimper charger with an elegant arabesque border.
Above are a couple of Paul Fouillen-inspired scenes from two different HB Quimper plates; the petite bretonnes on their way to market illustrate the uniqueness of each and every piece of vintage Quimper faïence. To the uninitiated, they may seem to be identical scenes, but as each piece was hand-painted, differences abound and an individuality comes into focus...the first woman appears a bit older, her basket is larger, etc.
Here's another illustration of the uniqueness of each piece of Quimper...
Petit bretons went to market, too...
...and on these HB Quimper plates the individuality of the scenes is apparent in the arabesque border as well.
A detail view of an HR Quimper bannette: dressed in the traditional costume worn in the Fouesnant region which includes the village of Pont-Aven, this petite bretonne takes a bit of a rest among some flowering ajonc that is overlooked by Quimper's Saint-Corentin Cathedral.
A crescent-shaped ink is painted with a petite bretonne from Quimper being serenaded as she relaxes with her market basket.
In last month's issue, we showed you examples of the HB pottery's scenes of market-goers from other regions of France...part of the Verlingue-Bollore-era Les Provinces Françaises series.
Here's a "petite bretonne going to market" figure as interpreted by Henri Delcourt's pottery in Boulogne-sur-Mer.
While we might not come across this exact scene in downtown Quimper today with merchants dressed in traditional garb, the site remains a place for getting one's daily provisions as the building in the background on the right houses our current "corner store".
In addition to the shoppers, the merchants were also represented by the Quimper potters...above is a double salt from the HB pottery...
...and this petite bretonne patiently waiting for a customer...
...was created by Henriette Porson ( 1874-1963 ) for HB. Note that the artist notation on a piece of Quimper generally does not mean that that specific piece was from the exact hand of the artist...there are indeed some exceptions to this, but for the most part, it reflects an agreement between the artist and the factory to produce items based on the artist's design.
I have described Brittany before as being the market basket of France and it truly is....
...and, of course, the fields overflowing with a variety of crops...like the artichokes shown above... as well as the activities involved in raising livestock served as inspiration for Quimper motifs.
The central motif on this HB Quimper plate adds an artichoke plant to the traditional Breton paysans.
In an earlier issue, we wrote about the attachment Bretons feel for their apple orchards...
Charles Maillard created a number of motifs featuring a border of apples including this Henriot platter...if the central motif looks familiar...it appears at the top of each of our monthly The Town, The People and The Pottery articles.
Alfred Beau celebrated apples on this plate from the Porquier-Beau yellow-bordered botanicals produced in the 1870s.
This vintage 1900 photograph of Quimper was taken at what is now called Place de la Résistance...currently a parking lot and busy bus stop in the town center. Back then, it was an important site for buying, selling and exchanging livestock.
The farms and moors surrounding Quimper foster the raising of a variety of livestock...
René-Yves Creston designed this scene of a Breton pig farmer...the plate dates from the mid-1920s and was made at the Henriot pottery. On display at Quimper's Musée Departémental Breton, I had to tilt the camera a bit to avoid reflections.
The countryside surrounding Quimper is also a place where sheep are raised. The shepard shown on this magnificent Odetta vase appears to not notice the fox in the background. The vase dates from the mid 1920s; in 2023, our local shepards are grappling with a problem of marauding wolves.
Some eighty years before the Odetta vase was produced, one of the Quimper potteries...the exact one is unknown...made this wonderful plate with its central motif of a single lamb.
The Art Déco master, Jean Dunand ( 1877-1942 ) vacationed with his family in Brittany. Above is a detail view of a wood, laquer and egg shell screen he created in 1926 that can be seen at the Musée Departémental Breton. One panel of the screen features this group of sheep enjoying a snack on the moors.
In the background of this view taken from the Manoir de Trévarez, the wheat fields alternate with other crops to form a patchwork stretching to the Atlantic Ocean.
Wheat is another local product that made its way into being painted on Quimper pottery.
Alfred Beau painted the original watercolor which was recreated on this Porquier-Beau scènes bretonnes plate...showing a scythe-carrying daily worker from the village of Fouesnant on his way to work in the wheat field.
Another Alfred Beau motif for the Porquier pottery illustrated a petite bretonne also actively involved in the fields.
The Porquier-Beau pieces date from the last quarter of the nineteenth century...
...a few decades later, Paul Fouillen gives the same activities a modern spin and the HB pottery produced his motifs on this impressive cruche.
Meanwhile over at the Henriot pottery, they produced a series of plates with different modern interpretations of fruits...in this case, a couple of plums.
Mirebelles, a golden-yellow colored plum, inspired an HB table service in the 1930s...
A cake plate and a dinner plate from the mirebelle series...
...and a sugar pot, cream pitcher and coffee pot from the same colorful series.
Berries this time, on a glorious Porquier-Beau compote...
...that is decorated to be enjoyed from every angle.
A strawberry merchant from Plougastel depicted in a mid-nineteenth century print published by Ernest B. Deley. The traditionally dressed petite bretonne is shown with enormous baskets of delicious strawberries...
...a special variety was developed in Plougastel and today baskets the size in the vintage print filled with Plougastel strawberries would cost a pretty penny.
To serve the strawberries with the accompanying cream, in the 1930s the HB pottery included a compartmented strawberry serving bowl in its factory catalog.
Bel Delecourt ( 1915-2017 ) created this joyful strawberry service for HB in the 1940s.
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 !