The design is from Planche number 42 of Alfred Beau's watercolor botanical designs for the Porquier factory; it depicts a French autumn ritual...the leaves of the chestnut trees are turning from green to gold and the outer casing of the chestnut is just beginning to open...a colorful butterfly accents the scene.

The typical blue-tinged Porquier background and yellow border are perfect complements to this rare form!

It measures 9.5 inches in diameter and as it was hand-formed, each of the star points is slightly different...the height ranges from 1.8125 inches high to 2.1875 inches high. The dramatic shape can be displayed on a separate plate rack or the back rim of the piece is pierced to facilitate using it as part of a wall grouping.

At first, that title presented a bit of a mystery...the Gourin portion was clear...Gourin is the name of a town in the Morbihan département located about 50  kilometers to the northeast of Quimper. (We've written before about Gourin...site of the delightful Fête de la Crëpe!)

It's the musette part that was not clear, since a musette is an early French form of bagpipe and the petit breton clearly appears to be playing some sort of horn.  Tah Dah...dictionary.com came to the rescue and we now know that a musette is also "a woodwind instrument similar to but smaller than a shawm". Of course, I never heard of a shawm, but that's irrelevant. 

What is relevant is the wonderful painterly quality packed into such a small piece...it's only 5.0625 inches in diameter!

The piece has had a professional restoration; it had been broken in two and restored when we found it. The appearance is good, but not perfect.
We've tried to photograph it so that the restoration is apparent...look to the left of the crown of the hat and you'll see a line that curves up. That's part of the restoration. If you were to hold it against a raking light, you could make out where the break was and to the touch, the glaze has that distinctive...at least to me..."restored" feel. But in a cabinet or displayed on your wall, the restoration would not be  noticeable at all.

It's marked on the back with the trefoil formed from a  "P" for Porquier and a sideways "B" for Beau. This is the "first mark Porquier-Beau", without a serif, indicating a piece of Alfred Beau's design that was produced at the Porquier factory during his tenure at the factory...that is between around 1875 and 1894. But you already knew that since you read the article, on our Quimper Factory Marks link, right?

Henriot Pichet Parlant

Ceramics with a devise or motto as part of their decoration are known as ceramiques parlant...talking pottery. So this wine pitcher is a pichet parlant or talking pitcher.

The motto...A Bon Vin Point d'Enseigne...can be translated to mean  "a good wine is the sign of a good establishment"...and is delightfully illustrated by the scene of two petit bretons raising their wine glasses to each other's health!

It measures 4.375 inches high, 4.5 inches wide including the handle, 3 inches wide at the body, and was made circa 1930.

 It  features a  tricorne spout and jauntily-striped handle.

Condition is remarkable for something that was probably used to pour wine everyday. There is just one teeny ding to the top rim...truly insignificant. A couple of glaze skips to the side and splotches of paint are original to when it was made.

A most unusual piece and perfect for not just Quimper collectors, but also for those interested in good wines and wine memorabilia.

Below is the mark on the bottom...Le Conquet is a town along Brittany's  Atlantic coast, west of Brest, near Pointe de Saint Mathieu.