Nevers faience

Dish with Joseph and His Brothers, 1630–45, after print by Bernard Salomon; Conrade workshop? "Inscribed on back in blue: LES FRERE' DE JIOSEPH / VENUS A LUY EN EGIPTE / AU GENESE XLII (trans.: The brothers of Joseph came to him in Egypt in Genesis 42)".[25]

The Italian immigrants continued at Nevers the istoriato (narrative) style that was already in decline in Italy, until at least 1660. This used as many colours as were available using the grand feu technique of a single firing for the clay, glaze and painting, which required a firing temperature that only a few pigments could tolerate. As was usual in Italy by 1580, designs were mostly adapted from prints,[26] and the outline set out on the pot by a ponci or stencil, pushing charcoal dust through pin-pricks in a paper drawing or tracing from a print.[27]

The early pieces did not generally use distinctive marks or inscriptions, though sometimes painting "Nevers" on the base of important pieces, perhaps with a date – the earliest of these is 1589, on a dish in the Louvre.[28] As with painted Limoges enamel of the previous century, with which Nevers decoration has some similarities, a high proportion of religious subjects illustrate Old Testament subjects. As with Italian pieces, the subjects, especially those from the Old Testament or classical mythology, tended to be named on the base, sometimes even with the bible chapter noted.[29]

There is a good deal of uncertainty in the attribution of pieces between the Nevers workshops, and between Nevers pieces and those of other centres.[30] The large dish with The Gathering of Manna illustrated below, a well-known piece, had been assumed to be Italian, and 16th century, until recently. Though there are still uncertainties, it is now thought to be moulded from an Italian dish (now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London), then painted as a matching pair of that.[31] A curious aspect of Nevers faience is that it never succeeded in producing a good red colour, unlike Rouen and other centres, the absence of which often enables Nevers pieces to be distinguished.[32]

As well as the scenes covering a whole surface, many Nevers pieces use grotesque motifs, usually on the raised border of plates or dishes, but also sometimes in the central space. These were used in Urbino maiolica in the 1580s, and also in painted Limoges enamel. In Nevers, they might surround central decoration in all styles except the Chinese, and gradually acquire their own local character.[33]

• 
  Sacrifice of Noah, 1580–1610, Nevers or Lyons
• 
  Basin or dish with The Gathering of Manna and extensive grotesques, 1620–45, probably made as a pair to an Italian dish of the 1560s.[34]
• 
  The manna in the desert, attributed to Antoine Conrade or Nicolas Estienne
• 
  Plate with two lovers and grotesque border, dated 1644, "perhaps" Antoine Conrade.[35]

Large dish (1660-80, 49.5 cm) with Chinese-style musicians in a landscape, unusually using two colours, flanked by two "Persian style" bowls with European-style painting

A technique unique to Nevers in French faience, used on some pieces from about 1650 for a few decades, was to stain all the clay from which the body was made either in bleu de Nevers or (much more rarely) a mustard yellow (Wedgwood did the same for their jasperware a century later). This was then painted in white or other colours, using various styles, but rarely with more than two colours. This style is traditionally known as "Persian" or bleu persan, as decoration in white on a rich blue ground is often seen in Persian pottery of the period. However, the bird and flower painted decoration seen in most examples of the "Persian" style in fact derives more from Turkish Iznik pottery, which was reaching Europe through Italy.[36] The white-on-blue Persian style was copied elsewhere, sometimes even in English delftware.[37]

"Persian"-style with bleu de Nevers ground, 1670s

Nevers adopted Chinese vase shapes early in the 17th century, earlier than Dutch Delftware.[38] Some Nevers pieces clearly copy Chinese export porcelain in terms of their painted decoration, both the cheaper Kraak ware and better quality blue and white wares, whereas others have decoration based on Turkish, Persian or other Islamic Middle Eastern styles. These often have the blue background, which is unusual on Chinese export porcelain, where blue figures on a white ground are the norm in blue and white wares.[39][40]

Within Estienne's study group of 1874 pieces, the "Persian" family were the most numerous, with 547, then the Chinese with 374, so 921 pieces in Asian styles in total, almost half.[41] Nevers made the first Chinese-style blue and white wares in France, with production running between about 1650 and 1700. Chinese styles would then be taken up by factories in Normandy, especially following the foundation of the French East India Company in 1664.[40][16]

Much of the painting on pieces with a white ground copies that of Chinese blue and white Transitional porcelain (roughly 1625–90), a good deal of which was exported. Chinese literati figures contemplating nature in a lush garden or landscape is a common subject in both countries, though the French treatments have some differences.[42] Nevers wares often have Chinese-style painting on purely Western shapes of vessel, and also the opposite, Western-style painting on very Chinese shapes.[43]

Unlike other French potteries, especially the porcelain factories of the early 18th century, influence from Japanese export porcelain styles such as Kakiemon is not found in Nevers wares.[44] Estienne sees the decoration à la bougie, with white imitating splashes of candle-wax on a blue ground (see below), as of Chinese inspiration. They compare with some much earlier Song dynasty wares, in particular the "oil-spot" glazes of Jian ware (around the 12th or 13th century), though Estienne is unable to explain how awareness of these could have reached France in the 17th century.[45]

• 
  Conrade plate, 1630s, imitating Chinese Kraak ware.
• 
  Garden vase, 1660–80; Chinese-style garden scene in white on a blue ground; the shape is entirely European.
• 
  Chinese style, 1680–1700, blue on a white ground.
• 
  Chinese-style vases, c. 1700

After about 1650, Nevers adapted the new French Court style, today called the style Louis XIV, to faience, the extravagant shapes borrowing from metalwork and other decorative arts, and painted scenes after the new generation of court painters such as Simon Vouet and Charles Lebrun, which were also painted in many colours. Both types of source were available to the potters as prints. The pieces were often extremely large and ornate, and apart from garden vases and wine-coolers, no doubt decorative rather than practical.[46]

• 
  Central dish is 58 cm across, the main scene the Rape of Europa, after an illustration of Ovid by François Chauveau, published in 1674
• 
  Wine-cooler with The Drunkenness of Bacchus, c. 1680
• 
  Pair of wine jugs, c. 1685, 56 cm high. François Chauveau's Rape of Europa is again used (left).
• 
  Large ewer with dancing bacchantes and satyrs, 1685
• 
  Three Montagnon pieces in the style, after 1900

Fisherman on the Loire near Nevers, painted by Claude Guillaume Bigourat (1735–1794), a matching dish has a hunting scene, dated 1758.[47]

Wares were also produced in a wide variety of styles drawing on European sources, and these came to dominate production in the 18th century, as the quality of Nevers wares declined. By around 1730, a "decline of inventiveness at Nevers" becomes apparent, and later Nevers wares mostly copy Rouen faience or the new factories of the south.[48] After about 1750, the European porcelain factories largely replaced Asian exports as the dominant wares at the top of the market, but by this time most Nevers faience was faience populaire, usually cruder, cheaper, and more "popular" in taste. Some armorial wares were produced.[49] Nevers is on the Loire and many pieces have painted images of the local style of river boats, and the long arched bridge over the river.[50]

Painted scenes, rather than floral or ornamental decoration, are usually in a single colour, most often blue and white, but also the "Persian" white on blue, or other colours. In the 17th century a favourite source for scenes with figures was the immensely long pastoral novel or romance L'Astrée by Honoré d'Urfé, published between 1607 and 1627, and possibly the single most influential work of 17th century French literature. The main characters, Astrée and Celadon, spend time disguised as a shepherd and shepherdess, and this is the most popular depiction; very wide hats tend to indicate the pastoral life. These scenes do not seem to take their compositions from prints, even approximately, nor relate to any specific moment in the story. They seem to begin around 1640.[51]

Other scenes show hunting and fishing, often drawing on Flemish prints,[52] and a few specific historical moments. There is a dish with the signing of the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659, with portraits of Cardinal Mazarin and Luis de Haro, his Spanish counterpart.[53] Many pieces, and many more borders, mix a range of elements: figures, birds and animals, flowers, and ornamental motifs, typically all at roughly the same size, for example a flower, rabbit, bird and man.[3]

• 
  Rare Nevers "Rustic ware" dish, in the style of Bernard Palissy, 1599, by Agostino Conrade
• 
  Rare statue of Saint Sebastian, about half life-size, c. 1630
• 
  Figure sconce (candleholder)
• 
  Vase, 1650-1700
• 
  Characters from L'Astrée in the "Persian" white on blue, c. 1675
• 
  Armorial dish, with characters from L'Astrée, 1650–75
• 
  "Candle" style (decoration à la bougie), imitating splashes of candle wax,[54] late 17th century
• 
  Astrological plate, 44 cm, perhaps with birthchart for "Moderata Durant", late 17th century.[55]
• 
  decorative pilgrim flask, 1700-1725
• 
  Bottle, c. 1809

The faiences patriotiques of the Revolutionary period typically have one or two figures in the central section, rather crudely painted in a few colours, with a pro-revolutionary slogan or comment below in black cursive script. The earliest examples included pro-monarchist pieces.[56] The same style had been in use before the Revolution, and continued after it, the wider grouping being called faience populaire or faiences parlantes ("talking faience"). These were more comic or satirical than political.[57] Another type of pieces in this popular style, called faience patronymique, showed the patron saint of the recipient, and were common as christening or birthday gifts. These types were made in other centres, but Nevers was the leading producer.[58]

• 
  Storming the Bastille, c 1789
• 
  A priest swears "with all my power" to maintain the Constitution; the clergy were made to so swear ("je jure de maintenir de tout mon pouvoir la constitution") in November 1790
• 
  "Rights of Man", c 1790
• 
  The Loire, with boats and the Nevers bridge, 1800
• 
  Tree of Love, a complex comic subject, 1803; the men are trying to hide from the women, a popular 18th century subject