VINDEFONTAINE - Normandy - Lot 38

VINDEFONTAINE - Normandy Rare combination of two glazed earthenware fountains decorated with sunflowers and geometric friezes applied in kaolin pastillage, the handles decorated with ermines in relief. Work from the Manche region in the first half of the 19th century. Height Height : 40 cm Width : 28 cm Depth : 19 cm Bibliography (Poteries - Faïences françaises, TARDY 3ème partie, p.1803) : VINDEFONTAINE (Manche), 33 km from Coutance, circa 1740-42, Isigny's commissionaires saleurs de beurre set up a pottery factory to make the false capacity pots they couldn't get from Ger's potters. Glazed pottery was made, with designs in relief. The clay used was plastic and blackish in color. At the French Faience Exhibition in 1932, Dr. R. Bonneau presented a piece of pottery under No. 1. Bonneau presented, under n°3183, two lenticular fountains, covered with a brown enamel decorated in relief with yellow flowers, and fitted with two handles. Note: "Vindefontaine was home to one of the most important pottery centers in the Cotentin region. Pottery activity seems to have begun in the late Middle Ages and ended in 1894. Like all the other stoneware production centers in western Normandy, these workshops produced a wide range of utilitarian pottery: terrines, creamers, sinots, churns, bottles, honey pots, etc. But Vindefontaine is most famous for its pottery. But Vindefontaine is above all famous for its decorated pottery: jugs, inkwells, stoup pots, vases and, in particular, brown-glazed stoneware fountains adorned with abundant kaolin pastillages." (Source: Traditional Ceramics in Normandy website) A similar model in the Musée de Normandie (Caen).