French porcelain - ceramic products produced on the territory of modern France , from the XVII century to the present.
Content
Soft white porcelain decorated with cobalt
For a long time, Chinese porcelain products were imported from China to France, which were very expensive and considered luxury goods. Chinese porcelain in France was collected and carefully preserved since the time of King Francis I (beginning of the 16th century), and was sometimes equipped with carefully designed frames made of precious metals, in order to protect against damage and further enhance its artistic value.
A tremendous amount of silver was shipped from Europe to China [approx. 1] as payment for Chinese porcelain products [1] , and many attempts have been made to independently manufacture such ceramics [2] .
White faience in the Chinese style with blue decor in France was first made at the manufactories of the Burgundian Nevers and its production here lasted from 1650 to 1680 [3] . Then, the production of porcelain in the Chinese style began at the Normandy manufactories. An additional impetus to production was given by the opening in 1664 of the French East India Company [3] .
The first samples of soft porcelain were obtained in France in an attempt to imitate expensive Chinese hard porcelain , [4] immediately after the successful manufacture of Medici porcelain in Florence in the 16th century [5] . The first samples of soft frit (sintered) porcelain in France were obtained in 1673 in Normandy at the Rouen porcelain factory as a result of a series of attempts to imitate real Chinese porcelain [4] [6] . It was this porcelain that became known as “French porcelain” [4] . The manufacturing technology of the new material was discovered by the Rouen potter Louis Poterat ( fr. Louis Poterat ) [4] ; his license to manufacture “faience and porcelain” was issued in 1673 with the signature of King Louis XIV and Jean-Baptiste Colbert [7] . At that time, blue décor, which was already widely used in France for faience ware of that period, was used for soft porcelain [4] . The English naturalist Martin Lister, in a report published in 1698 on a trip to France, wrote from Paris that the production of porcelain "just as white and translucent as objects that came from the East" was in full swing in Saint-Cloud .
The French compiler of the Universal Dictionary of Trade, Jacques Savary de Brunon , described the first experiments with porcelain in this work in 1722:
“Fifteen or twenty years ago, in France, attempts were made to imitate Chinese porcelain: the first experiments carried out in Rouen were very successful, (...) these faience products of new manufactories did not have the classification“ French porcelain ”- so began to be called objects from real china, invented in France in the last few years, and produced first in Rouen, then in Passy near Paris, and then in Saint-Cloud ” [8] .
In 1664, finance quartermaster Jean-Baptiste Colbert , who also held the position of chief quartermaster of fine arts and factories, opened the Royal Saint-Cloud manufactory , whose main task was initially to make copies (in the original by Fr. Contre-façons , that is, fakes) of porcelain Indian style [9] . The Saint-Cloud manufactory was essential in the manufacture of new ceramics.
Imitation of Asian Painted Products
In 1686, King Louis XIV of France received 1,500 pieces of porcelain as a gift from the Siamese Embassy who arrived in France, but the secret of its production remained a mystery [9] .
France was able to uncover the secret of Chinese hard porcelain manufacturing techniques thanks to the efforts of the Jesuit Francois Xavier d'Entrecolles ( French: François Xavier d'Entrecolles ) in China from 1712 to 1722 [9] . The missionary's letters sent from China to Priest Orry in Paris were first published in 1735 by Jean-Baptiste Duald , the most authoritative Sinologist of the era. An English translation of these letters was published in 1736 or 1738 [10] . Subsequently, these letters were reprinted by Abbot Jean-Baptiste Grosier in his work "A General Description of China" [11] . D'Antrecolle also managed to send to Europe samples of natural materials that were investigated by the French naturalist Rene Antoine Reaumur . After discovering deposits of similar minerals in Europe, the Sevres Porcelain Manufactory was founded [11] .
After 1730, France also began to produce painted porcelain, often imitating the Chinese style of painting porcelain Famille rose . Japanese porcelain , exemplified by the arita style, known in France as “Fleurs indiennes” (Flowers of India) also served as a motive for artists, especially in the factories of Saint-Cloud and Chantilly . The patent, which King Louis XV granted to the Chantilly Manufactory in 1735, specifically states the right to manufacture façon de Japon porcelain (an imitation of Japanese porcelain) [12]
Meanwhile, soft porcelain production technology came to England with the Huguenots who fled from France. The first soft porcelain products in England were presented by Thomas Briand to the Royal Society of London in 1742 and, apparently, their production was based on Saint-Cloud manufacturing technology [13] .
The appearance of the original French style
After the initial period, which lasted until the end of the 18th century, French porcelain manufacturers began to gradually move away from Chinese and Japanese motifs in their products, and their products began to more distinctly acquire the original French style [9] . So, the Vincennes porcelain manufactory began to display original French motifs in its soft porcelain products in the last years of its work, after which this trend was continued in the original and diverse products of the Sevres porcelain manufactory .
The next stage in the development of French porcelain is marked by the advent of Limoges porcelain , a kind of hard porcelain produced in factories near the city of Limoges in the modern Limousin region . The production of hard porcelain in this region was founded in 1771, after the discovery of an extensive kaolin deposit in the impoverished village of Saint-Uriei-la-Persh , near Limoges.
Nevertheless, in France, along with the development of hard porcelain manufacturing technology, the production of soft porcelain continued, since it was much cheaper in production.
See also
- Porcelain manufacturers in Europe
Notes
- ↑ Fernand Braudel. 'Gold and silver: strength or weakness?' // The Perspective of the World. Civization & Capitalism . - T. 3. - S. 490.
- ↑ Nigel Wood. Chinese glazes: their origins, chemistry, and recreation . - S. 240.
- ↑ 1 2 Gerald WR Ward. The Grove Encyclopedia of Materials and Techniques in Art . - S. 38.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 Edwin Atlee Barber. Artificial Soft Paste Porcelain - France, Italy, Spain and England . - S. 5-6.
- ↑ A. Nussinovitch. Hydrocolloid applications: gum technology in the food and other industries . - S. 193.
- ↑ Edward Dillon. Porcelain - S. 239.
- ↑ ML Solon. "The Rouen Porcelain" // The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs . - 1905 .-- S. 118.
- ↑ Porcelain and faience from the 16th to the 19th century (English) . Website cyrillefroissart.com. Date of treatment September 9, 2012. Archived October 31, 2012.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Baghdiantz McCabe. Orientalism in Early Modern France . - Oxford: Berg Publishing, 2008 .-- S. 220. - ISBN 978-1-84520-374-0 .
- ↑ Rose Kerr, Nigel Wood, Joseph Needham. Ceramic technology . - S. 37.
- ↑ 1 2 Joseph Marryat. A history of pottery and porcelain: mediæval and modern . - S. 190.
- ↑ Gordon Campbell. The Grove encyclopedia of decorative arts . - S. 223.
- ↑ George Savage. 18th-Century English Porcelain . - S. 92.
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