| www.oldquimper.com |
meadows@oldquimper.com |
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The Town, The People, and The Pottery |
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Quimper...pronounced "kem-pair"...is a town in
northwestern France. It is also a people and a pottery. The town is located in the former Duchy of Brittany, by train, some 388 miles from Paris. Today, it is the chief-lieu of the département of Finistère. This is akin to being the administrative capital of an American county. The people of Quimper...known as the Quimpèrois, are of Celtic origin. The "founding fathers" of Brittany, immigrants from Cornwall, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, settled in the area in the fifth and sixth century A.D. Brittany is one of the six Celtic nations, the people of Brittany are called Bretons, and their native language is not French, but rather Breton, a form of Gælic. Early Bretons were quite insular, each hamlet almost a world into itself, and in many instances folks from neighboring villages spoke such differing dialects that they actually couldn't easily communicate with each other. While Brittany officially became part of France in 1532, the Bretons retained their unique Celtic customs and, to put it mildly, did not easily assimilate into the French culture. This feeling of separation from "France Proper" was, and is, very strong. For example, Brittany voted after World War II to no longer be part of France, but the French government declined to accept the result. I mention this to explain why the Bretons do not necessarily see their pottery as being part of the "Country French" style...instead, it is uniquely their own.
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 1707. (Previous accounts put the date as 1690, but history is not written in stone and new 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 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 what 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 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 methodologies. The tradition of Quimper faïence production continues today with more than one factory working within the town limits. 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 join us as we further explore old Quimper...the town, the people, and the pottery.
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