Early 19th Century French Creil Creamware Faïence Fine Dish Molded With Bulrushes

Details

Description

French Creil Creamware Faïence Fine Dish Molded with Bulrushes
Circa 1800–1820

This oval French creamware (faïence fine) dish was made … Read more French Creil Creamware Faïence Fine Dish Molded with Bulrushes
Circa 1800–1820

This oval French creamware (faïence fine) dish was made at the Creil manufactory, on the river Oise north of Paris, during the First Empire or the early years of the Restoration. The well is molded in low relief with radiating bulrushes (cattails) and slender water reeds, their long leaves crossing and overlapping as they spread outward from a plain oval center, with the velvety seed heads of the bulrushes rising at intervals toward the border. The crisp modeling reads beautifully beneath the warm, creamy glaze, and a plain rounded rim encloses the decoration. The style is directly indebted to the cream-colored "Queen's Ware" of Josiah Wedgwood, which Creil and the other French manufactories set out to rival.

While it stands well on its own as a decorative object, the dish was probably made as a stand for a sauce tureen or a small basket.

In a room setting the dish is at its best hung singly on the wall or set on a plate stand, where raking light brings up the relief, or grouped with other white and cream wares on open shelves; it serves equally well on a dressing table or sideboard as a tray for small objects.

Dimensions
Length: 9⅛ inches (23.2 cm)
Width: 6¼ inches (15.9 cm)
Height: 1 inch (2.5 cm)

Marks
Impressed CREIL.

Provenance
Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge

Condition
Excellent antique condition, with no chips, cracks or repairs.

References
Maddy Ariès, La manufacture de Creil, 1797–1895 (Paris: Librairie Guénégaud, 1974).

Jacques Bontillot, Les marques de la faïence de Creil & Montereau (Chéroy: Les Amis de la faïence fine, 2006).

Christian Maire, Histoire de la faïence fine française, 1743–1843: Le triomphe des terres blanches (Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 2008).

Marion Kalt, La faïence fine de Creil (1797–1895) (Creil: Musée Gallé-Juillet, 2010).

For the impressed CREIL mark on a closely dated piece, compare the Creil teapot in the Musée de l'Île-de-France, Château de Sceaux, inv. 78.12.26, dated 1808–1818.

Historical Context
A first pottery at Creil was founded on May 26, 1797, by the Parisian glassmaker Robert Bray O'Reilly, but it lasted little more than a year; the works were re-established on a lasting footing in 1801, using English methods and English-trained workmen to make faïence fine, a white-bodied, lead-glazed earthenware in the manner of Staffordshire creamware that was lighter, thinner and more durable than traditional French tin-glazed faïence. Charles Gaspard Alexandre de Saint-Cricq-Cazaux, a shareholder from 1803 and sole owner from 1816, bought the rival works at Montereau in 1819, and after his death in 1840 the two were merged as the Faïenceries de Creil et Montereau; the Creil factory itself closed in 1895. The plain impressed CREIL mark belongs to the years before the merger.

The restraint of the decoration, which relies on modeling alone rather than painted or printed color, reflects the taste for plain cream-colored table wares that English creamware had established across Europe, and suits the restrained classical interiors of the Napoleonic era.

(Ref: NY10289C) See less