Rouen porcelain
French porcelain |
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Rouen porcelain is soft-paste porcelain made in the city of Rouen, Normandy, France, during a brief period from about 1673 to 1696. It was the earliest French porcelain, but was probably never made on a commercial basis; only nine pieces are now thought to survive.[1]
Rouen had been a centre for the production of Rouen faience (tin-glazed earthenware pottery), since at least the 1540s. Louis Poterat, the owner of the porcelain factory, came from the leading family of faience producers in the city at the time, and continued his faience production in another factory.[2]
History
In 1644 Nicolas Poirel,
In the 17th century Europeans were unaware that very specific clays, high in
In the 1670s the only soft-paste porcelain to have been produced in Europe was the
The new Rouen soft-paste porcelain material appears to have been invented by Louis' father Edme.[2] At this time imports of both Chinese export porcelain and its Japanese equivalent had reached high levels, and governments and potters across Europe were very keen to develop their own industry, a goal not properly fulfilled until Meissen porcelain was developed many decades later.[7]
Characteristics and key pieces
Rouen produced the first soft-paste porcelain in France, but only nine surviving soft-paste pieces are now generally attributed to Rouen, with a possible tenth.[8] Many other claimants have been reassigned to Saint-Cloud porcelain, which is often very similar.[9] None are marked, and an important piece of evidence is the coat-of-arms of the Norman lawyer Asselin de Villequiers on the mustard pot (illustrated below), now in the Sèvres museum. His arms are also found on Rouen faience.[10]
All are (like Chinese
The porcelain at Rouen became known as "Porcelaine française".
When the next royal patent for porcelain was granted in 1702 to the owners of Saint-Cloud porcelain, the grant noted that the Rouen factory "did nothing more than approach the secret, and never brought it to the perfection these petitioners have acquired".[14]
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Mustard pot, with the arms of Asselin de Villequiers, Sèvres museum.
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Bottle, Sèvres museum (as are the other pieces with this background).
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Rouen soft-paste porcelain bottle
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Rouen porcelain bottle
Notes
- ^ Munger & Sullivan, 135; Battie, 86–87
- ^ a b c Munger & Sullivan, 135
- ^ Pottier, 10, 65–77; Savage (1963), 180; Savage (1959), 145; Chaffers, 179
- ^ Savage (1963), 25–29; Battie, 86–87, 105–109, 116; Munger & Sullivan, 135
- ^ Battie, 86–87, in 1990 he knew of 64 pieces; Savage (1963), 175–176
- ^ Munger & Sullivan, 135-137
- ^ Battie, 49–52 on China, 71–73 on Japan, 85, 86–87 on Italy; Savage (1963) 123–126 on Meissen; Chaffers, 179–181 covers France and England.
- ^ Munger & Sullivan, 135, also see notes on p. 137. A tenth piece is a possibility.
- ^ Battie, 106; Munger & Sullivan, 137, note 9
- ^ Munger & Sullivan, 136; Battie, 106
- ^ Munger & Sullivan, 136–137; Battie, 106
- ^ a b Artificial Soft Paste Porcelain – France, Italy, Spain and England Edwin Atlee Barber p.5-6
- ^ Metropolitan Museum of Art
- ^ Chaffers, 179
References
- ISBN 1850292515
- Chaffers, William, "The Earliest Porcelain Manufactory in England", in The Art Journal, 1865, google books
- Coutts, Howard, The Art of Ceramics: European Ceramic Design, 1500–1830, 2001, Yale University Press, ISBN 0300083874, 9780300083873, google books
- Munger, Jeffrey, Sullivan Elizabeth, European Porcelain in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Highlights of the collection, 2018, Metropolitan Museum of Art, ISBN 1588396436, 9781588396433, google books
- Savage, George, (1959), Pottery Through the Ages, Penguin, 1959
- Savage, George, (1963), Porcelain Through the Ages, Penguin, (2nd edn.) 1963