Collection of 26 designs for French faïence ware

POTTERY. JAILLET   Boulogne-sur-Mer,  1830s      8 watercolours framed as four, approx. 18" x 12" and 12½ x 19"; sometimes inscribed in pencil, with numerical annotations; four drawings stamped, "Ceramiques d'Art de la Madeleine, Anciens Etablissements H. Delcourt, 23 & 25 Avenue de Paris, Boulogne-sur-Mer"; some damp-staining and light discolouration affecting 7 designs; framed See Giacomotti, French Faience, p. 82 These attractive designs with scrolls, curlicues, floral and blue and white 'Delft' patterns and rustic scenes are for candlesticks, jugs, ewers, jugs, jardinières, a powder bowl, tulipières, plates, tureens and vases. Below each design are numbers which seem to indicate an order number with a price (or prices if there were various sizes available) alongside. Apart from a single drawing which reproduces a Sèvres ewer, the designs appear to be original, two of which are signed 'M. Jaillet'. "The term faïence has a distinct and specialised meaning, used to refer to earthenware having a transparent glaze which has been opacified with oxide of tin. The technique originated as far back as the beginning of the first millennium BC, but was particularly popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. There were numerous small factories in northern France which supplied a prodigious amount of domestic faience. Attributions are very difficult to make, relying principally on tradition which is undocumented. Hesdin, a ceramic centre since the Middle Ages, is usually credited with large flat dishes painted with horsemen outlined freely in yellow and blue. Desvres is supposed to have produced a large number of coarse wares covered with a lead glaze on the reverse, and decorated with simplified flowers, horsemen of figures of saints" (Giacomotti). Our manufacturer, Henri Delcourt, based in Desvres, produced faïence up until the early twentieth century, after which he specialised in "milked porcelain" wares. 

Price: £1100