The Town, The People and The Pottery

Volume 23  Number 7
December 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 and after that, the Fouillen pottery. 

​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 Keraluc pottery. 

Now into our 23rd year of monthly articles about Quimper, in our last issue, we began documenting the history of that pottery,  Keraluc,  which was founded in August of 1946. We went back a bit to understand how the founder, Victor Lucas, was able to leave such an enormous imprint on the success and endurance of Quimper pottery.  If Jules Verlingue can be noted as being responsible for the twentieth-century modernisation of the HB pottery...a discussion of who would be his counterpart at the Henriot pottery would certainly include Victor Lucas. 

The history of Keraluc begins with Victor Lucas, who was born in 1897 in the town of Saint-James in the Manche department of northern France. His schooling and life opportunities combined to provide a unique insight and melding of talent and experience pertaining to the world of pottery from both an artistic and technical standpoint. 

Victor's artistic talents were quickly recognised and his early schooling includes training at the prestigious ceramics factory/school in Sèvres...a suburb of Paris. 

The Sèvres factory originally had its success attributed to the interest of Madame de Pompadour and the patronage of her "ardent admirer", King Louis XV. 

From Wikipedia, an image of an 18th century Sèvres soup tureen...ornate and far from the typical piece of Quimper faïence. 

But here are a couple of examples of Sèvres ceramics from the first decades of the 21st Century. Quite a difference from their earlier production...and not too far removed from some of the art pottery produced in Quimper at that time. 

In his first years at the Sèvres school, Lucas learned the art of designing ceramics, benefitting from the centuries of the Sèvres factory's existence.  World War I interrupted his studies and when the War was over and he returned to the school, the teaching program at Sèvres had made a radical switch from design to emphasising the technical aspects of producing ceramics.  A fortuitous combination, making Lucas not just an accomplished artistic designer, but a ceramist who understood the production aspects of ceramics including challenging technical processes and the application of different types of decorative treatments.

Soon after graduating from Sévres, Lucas began working at Henriot, modernising factory equipment, techniques and production designs. The competition between the HB pottery and Henriot was intense and Lucas' contributions were instrumental in the successful expansion of Henriot's image and share of the market. In last month's issue , we described how unhappy René-Yves Creston had initially been with the production tests of designs he had submitted. Lucas as Henriot's ingénieur, created additional training programs, updated materials and implemented more modern techniques...with the result that, soon after, the designs were a success both with Creston and the marketplace.

A Creston plate featuring a very stylised petit breton; a motif he created in 1924...

...and the all-important traditional harvesting of apples gets the "Creston treatment" in this plate that dates from May of 1925.

1925 was a key topic in our last issue...the Arts Décoratifs exhibition held that year in Paris was a huge, award-winning success for Henriot and sealed Lucas' continuing influence on the firm's production.  Here's another piece that demonstrates the break from tradition that Henriot presented at the exhibition...

...a faïence plate from a service designed by Jeanne Malivel.

The success of the exhibition erased any trace of hesitancy toward innovation as demonstrated  by these Creston examples from 1929/1930...

...a powerful on-horseback representation of Nominoë...the official in the employ of Charlemagne who unified Brittany and became its first king...

...and how's this for a clever design for a tea service ? 

No photo, but we have this likeness of Victor Lucas at around this era...

...a portrait on faïence painted by his friend, Pierre Cavellat (1901-1995). Cavellat's "real job" was in the legal profession, but he was also a self-taught ceramics artist and textile designer. 

In addition to directing Henriot's production operations, Lucas also created pieces on his own...

...including a large...over 18 inches in diameter...charger with a mesmerising geometric central motif...

...and a dramatic two-handled vase...

...with the Breton words meaning "Brittany Forever" painted on one side... 

...and an elaborate ducal crest of Brittany on the other.

In 1931, another exhibition meant further innovations and increased reliance on the technical knowledge that Lucas brought to Henriot. 

A controversial event then and even more so in the eyes of today, at the time the exhibition was intended to highlight the colonies of the world's most powerful nations...educating the public and attracting potential workers by promoting the colonies' exotic natures, natural resources and business potentials. France, as the host country, had the most elaborate of the presentations made by the eight participating nations...including the US which featured Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Samoa. 

For their ceramics, both the HB and Henriot potteries were awarded an overall grand prize for their presentations. According to published reports of the day, individual prizes were also awarded to several artists for pieces that were included in their respective presentations. In the case of Henriot, Victor Lucas received a gold medal...believed to be for his overall contribution to the success of all of the firm's entrants, rather than for a specific piece. 

Other awards were given to: 

...René-Yves Creston (1898-1964) for a large mappemonde or globe of the earth specifically outlining the places...as is written on the golden band representing the equator...Partout où le soleil passe, le Breton passe....essentially meaning "Wherever the sun goes, the Bretons go". Shown on the right in this photograph taken at the Musée de la Faïence, the large globe is half a meter...about 20 inches...in diameter and was displayed at the exhibition on an elaborate rosewood stand so that it stood about 2 feet, 9 inches high. A star of the show, it reportedly was not made specifically for the exhibition, but was rather a piece commissioned by the French government. 

...Gaston Broquet (1880-1947) presented nine sculptural figures for which he was awarded a gold medal. 

This one is entitled La Charge...a little over 10 inches high,  it depicts two women...one adjusting a loaded basket that will be carried on top of the head of the other. 

It's amazing how in the right hands, globs of clay can be transformed into objects that relate an emotional story. In this group of Broquet figures...in the background, left to right...a young mother with an infant being carried on her back, another woman, also with an infant on her back, but this time grinding grain, again, the figure of two women adjusting an overloaded basket and a saint-like figure entitled Vierge au lampe. In the foreground Broquet's Chamelier Maure.

Are they taking a well-deserved rest or is the camel smirking while ignoring his master's taunts to hit the trail once more ?

...Jeanne-Itasse Broquet (1865-1941) was the daughter of a prominent sculptor and married to Gaston Broquet. She was awarded a bronze medal for her participation in the Henriot presentation. 

One of the two pieces she submitted, was this faïence figure of a gilded southeast-Asian ceremonial dancer.

...Roger Nivelt (1899-1962), like a number of the artists who submitted designs to Henriot, never actually set foot in Brittany, but he was very involved in western Africa...

His designs for figures and plates, for which he won a silver medal at the Colonial Exhibition, made use of his experiences in that region. Above a detail of Nivelt's motif for a large faïence charger.

A bronze medal was won by Georges Géo-Fourrier (1898-1966)...

...for this pair of faïence bookends featuring sculptural figures of Moroccan merchants. 

Géo-Fourrier lived and taught art in Quimper beginning in 1928. One of his many awards and stipends allowed him to spend seven months in Africa in 1929, traveling almost 10,000 miles and capturing the essence of his journey in drawings and photographs. It is believed that several of the artists who participated in Henriot's presentation did so in response to coming into contact with Géo-Fourrier and his infectious enthusiasm for ceramics and Africa.

...Émile Adolphe Monier (1883-1970) was another recipient of a gold medal for pieces created for the Henriot presentation...

...among the pieces, this pair of bookends...

...formed from faïence busts of women from the Belgian Congo...what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo...

...

Like Géo-Fourrier, Monier had traveled to Africa and his experiences there continued to provide considerable inspiration.

A publicity postcard issued by Henriot picturing faïence sculptures by Émile Monier and Gaston Broquet.

Capitalising on their success at the Colonial Exhibition, Henriot produced a limited number of examples destined for a discerning market.  These pieces continue to command high prices if and when they are available for purchase. 

Regular readers may recall that we recently reported on the sale of an example of Gaston Broquet's Vierge au lampe...a version in faïence with a gilt overglaze. It sold this summer for the equivalent of more than $ 5000. US.

Another major exhibition for Henriot was in 1937...an international event held in Paris. Brittany had its own pavillion, the exterior of which was decorated with a Mathurin Méheut-inspired design. Once inside, visitors were greeted at the Henriot presentation with an impressive sculpture group by Yvonne Jean-Haffen. 

The sculpture traces the traditional steps that go into the production of a piece of Quimper...including forming the piece, decorating it and then transporting it to the kiln for the final firing.  

Standing almost five feet tall, it is said to have been completed...design to finished product...in only three weeks. Another testament to the skills of Victor Lucas !

And as if that wasn't enough...

...this fragment, sculpted with a clipper ship on an ocean populated with mermaids and seahorses, is all that remains of yet another Creston globe. This one was originally over five feet in diameter and was displayed on a stand that was over nine feet high. Celebrating Brittany's seafaring history, after the exhibition it was purchased by an English Lord as a gift for his Bretonne wife, but unfortunately, some years later a group of neighborhood children decided it would make a good toy. It didn't.

In keeping with the season, we'll close this issue by wishing you and yours the very happiest of holidays,...

...illustrated with a Victor Lucas nativity scene. 

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 !