The Town, The People and The Pottery
Volume 20 Number 10
March 2019
March 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 1926…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 1926…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.
If you've been following along, you'll recall that by this time, Jules Verlingue had taken on a partner, Louis Bolloré, the factory had moved to a new location in Locmaria and had added experienced personnel and modernized techniques and equipment.
This is a company catalog from that era...back cover on the left and front cover on the right. ..the designs of René Quillivic taking pride of place. Like the pottery, the catalog illustrations were hand-painted.
In our last issue, we wrote about Odetta, the stoneware pottery that garnered so much attention at the 1925 Paris exhibition that gave birth to the term "Art Déco". Quillivic was one of the artists who contributed to HB's award-winning presentation at the exhibition. Another artist who won awards at the prestigious event...and who was the behind the design of this Odetta vase...
...is another Réné...Réne Beauclair. He unfortunately remains somewhat of a mystery man, since not much information has been unearthed about his background and history. While Quillivic was a Breton, it is thought that Beauclair was not and that he never set foot in Brittany, let alone Quimper, and simply sent his design proposals to the HB factory by mail.
To review a bit, Odetta pottery was one of the innovations introduced by Jules Verlingue. Odetta pieces are not faïence, but rather stoneware...what the French call grès. The clay was different, the decorative glazes were different, the application of the glaze was different...the entire process was different. Right on down to the firing in the kiln.
The name Odetta pays hommage to the Odet River...one of the four rivers that converge at Quimper. The name was officially trademarked by the factory in 1922, but the avant-guard line of stoneware did not begin general production until 1926. That was also the year when the move to the new facility was completed. The last artists' studio to make the move from the Place Styvel to what is now the Place Bérardier was the one headed by Charles Trautmann. He was one of the artists hired by Jules Verlingue to energize and modernize the firm's production after World War I. The large vase below is an example of his work:
In 1928, the pottery factory took on yet another name...it was now officially registered as the Établissements Céramiques de la Grande Maison HB. The following year saw the stock-market crash in the U.S. The American market represented a large part of the factory's revenues and the ensuing Great Depression had an enormous negative impact. Another serious concern was the growing number of imitators...both from within France and from other countries. It seemed like everyone wanted to cash in on the success of Quimper pottery as a means to survive the difficult economic times.
And just like in the movies...when the ship is faltering, what better time than to put on a show? That "show" would be the Exposition Coloniale Internationale.
Like the Arts Décoratifs exhibition of 1925, the Exposition Coloniale Internationale was originally scheduled for some years prior to when it actually occurred. When it finally did happen...opening in May of 1931...it reportedly attracted almost eight million visitors during its six-months-long run. The exhibit was intended to highlight the brighter side of colonization and focused on the exchange of cultures. In addition to the host country of France, participant nations included Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, the U.K. and the U.S.
Sears, the Chicago firm so famous for hammers, screwdrivers and vacuum cleaners, also sold house-building kits and was contracted by the US government to build the exhibit pavilions that would represent the U.S. Sears proudly made note of their involvement in advertisements of the day. The part of the exhibit that replicated George Washington's Mount Vernon home was later moved to its current suburban Paris location for use as a private residence.
I don't know what type of items were exhibited within the U.S. pavilion...colonies included Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico...but the French included examples of Quimper pottery to illustrate their take on colonialism. Here's a look at some of them:
The example above depicts Egyptian water carriers and is the work of François-Victor Bazin (1897-1956). He designed three pieces with this theme...this one measures a little over 17 inches high; the largest...
...is almost a meter high! Both pieces are stoneware rather than faïence.
Georges Brisson ((1902-1980) created a series of dessert plates with different motifs but having the same theme... a French serviceman in an exotic locale:
The legend on the series...escales lointaines...translates to "remote ports" or "distant stopovers".
Georges Renaud (1904-1994) was responsible for a great number of the Quimper pieces included in the exhibition:
Here are a couple of Renaud's original designs...drawn from imagination as he had not traveled to the French colonies:
No surprise that Renaud was awarded a gold medal by the jury of the exhibition!
The next piece depicts a native of a specific commune of the Ivory Coast;
...it was designed by Nicolas Pesce.
Unlike Georges Renaud, Anna Quinquaud (1890-1984) spent several years traveling in Africa.
Produced as a limited edition by the HB pottery, the original version of Quinquaud's Femme du Fouta-Djallon (Guinea, West Africa) typically attains in the neighborhood of 20,000 + euros at auction...add to that the buyers' premium of close to 25%!
The Musée de la Faïence has twice dedicated their annual temporary exhibition to the Quimper pottery produced for the Exposition Coloniale Internationale. First in 1996 and again in 2014:
To commemorate the initial event, the museum presented a limited number of re-editions of the Quinquaud figure. One is proudly on display at the Préfecture for Finistère...a préfecture functions as the headquarters for county government...located in the center of Quimper.
Another artist for whom there is...for now anyway...little information...is Ray Scherdel. His streamlined and elegant design for a cache-pot...
...couldn't be any farther from the traditional image of a petite breton holding a riding crop or smoking a pipe!
Breton motifs weren't totally set aside, however....on display was another Bazin piece...a maquette or model of his World War I memorial depicting five mourning petite bretonnes...of all ages...and wearing the traditional "bigoudèn" costume
...the maquette is earthenware painted to resemble patinated bronze...
...the actual monument is carved granite and is situated in the town of Pont l-Abbé...
René Quillivic also chose to pay homage to the victims of what was known then as the Great War...
...and submitted his maquette for a statue depicting a widow from the town of Fouesnant.
Also in the more traditional vein...included in the exposition was this pair of bookends modeled by the artist known only as Bouvier...
...the bookends are adorned with figures of an elderly couple from the Breton village of Locronan...their connection with the French colonies remains a mystery.
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.