Notes:
This early HB mark..."H" for
Hubaudière, the factory owner at the time, and "B" for Bousquet, the
original founder...may be red, black, blue, etc...there is no known
significance to the color.
This variation of what has come to be known as "first mark HB" has an
additional dot...thought to signify a specific artist.
In August of 1883, the factory registered this mark...the conjoined
letters without the "tail"...apparently hoping to make a distinction to
note the end of the period when Fougeray served as factory
director...although, in reality, habits being difficult to break, it
is not unusual to find a piece from the first quarter of the twentieth
century with this earlier mark.
On décor riche examples from circa 1900, numeric artists' designations can
be found added to the HB mark.
After Jules Verlingue purchased the HB factory, he had the artists add a
"morse-code"-like "signature" to identify their work. This remained the
custom at HB from 1917 to 1942. (Note that the vase painted on the bottom
of this example has no known significance...it was perhaps just a handy place on which to
record an idea).
From 1922, until his retirement in 1932, Jules Verlingue took on Louis
Bolloré as a partner. Some of the decorations...notably those from the
provinces françaises series...were signed with a conjoined "VB" to note their
association. While these pieces are not marked with the word
"Quimper", the presence of the "morse-code" lets you know that they
definitely are Quimper.
Here's the mark on a piece
decorated with a scene inspired by the region of Savoie...
...and here's the mark on a
piece decorated with a scene from the alpine town of Grenoble...again, the
"morse-code" markings indicate their Quimper origins.
The Odetta mark designed to
indicate a series of stoneware art pottery produced by the HB factory was
officially registered in 1922; sample pieces were made in 1923 and
spectacular examples were exhibited at the 1925 Arts Décoratifs
exhibition, but formal production did not begin until March of 1926.
The mark used on Odetta...in production until the 1970s...included numbers
indicating, on the left, the form, and on the right, the décor.
When the form of an Odetta piece
was the same as one that was to be made in faïence, a lowercase "g" for
grès was engraved in the clay prior to the first firing. This was
important as the temperature requirements for firing faïence and grès are
quite different.
Beginning in 1942 and continuing
until the 1960s, the majority of pieces produced at the HB factory were
marked as shown above...the numbers signified the form of the particular
piece, the first letter identified the head of the studio where it was
decorated...there were three different studios...and the last letter
identified the individual painter-decorator that did the actual painting
on the piece.
Of course there were lots of exceptions...like this mark found on a piece
that was an exception in itself...it was not hand-painted, but a
commissioned piece that was actually decorated using decals.
Continue to Next Page...Henriot
Factory Marks
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