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French Majolica Faience Desvres Rouen Georges Martel Trinket Box Desk
Small ROUEN Georges Martel, Antique French Faience 10cm tall 8cm wide 7cm deep c1920
This Small Rouen French Faience Desvres Trinket box in the form of a writing desk
Armorial crest wuth crown above with banner - Boulogne sur Mer on the removable lid
It s decorated with stylized accents, and a typical color palette of Desvres, including a creamy white background decorated with blue, green, and yellow;
- the Chair is marked on the underside base in black GM the mark of maker Geo Martel
- t Base is glazed; the feet are unglazed.
The estimated date is c.1920.
This Small Antique desk is in very good condition status includes minimal normal wear and rubbing, typical crazing, minor glaze losses, firing flaws, and fretting. Overall, this work is sound, having no cracks, or major defects, and having had no apparent repairs or restorations. This is Desvres style fine country French art pottery. This style includes production techniques whereby tin glazes and decorations are applied and worked in stages upon a modeled terra cotta pottery form, and fired several times in a kiln. It is noted that French Faience is not inherently "perfect" - larger pieces were still hand made in this era and as such have marks like little dents in the pottery which are glazed over. This isn't damage- this is part of the history of old pottery and how it was made. This item is sold as is, as described. Please see all photos which are a part of this description. Please note; photos have been taken in indirect sunlight; therefore, reflections and lighting spots may appear, but do not necessarily indicate defects.
Faience, or tin-glazed and enameled earthenware, first emerged in France during the sixteenth century, reaching widespread usage among elite patrons during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, prior to the establishment of soft-paste porcelain factories. Although characterized as more provincial in style than porcelain, French faience was used at the court of Louis XIV as part of elaborate meals and displays, with large-scale vessels incorporated into the Baroque garden designs of Versailles. Earlier examples of French faience attest to the strong influence of maiolica artists from Italy. Later works demonstrate the ways in which cities such as Nevers, Rouen, Lyon, Moustiers, and Marseille developed innovative vessel shapes and decorative motifs prized among collectors throughout Europe.
While faience can be created from a wide mixture of clays, it is foremost distinguished by the milky opaque white color achieved by the addition of tin oxide to the glaze. French faience is typically divided into two types. Grand feu (high fire) describes pieces that have been decorated with glaze and metallic oxides before being fired a single time at a high temperature of around 1650°F (900°C). Petit feu (low-fire) faience, developed in the second half of the eighteenth century, refers to a process whereby the clay body is fired before being glazed and decorated with metallic oxides and then fired again at a lower temperature; pieces can also go through a third firing. Grand feu pieces have a more limited color palette that consists of blue, yellow, brown-purple, and green. By contrast, the lower firing temperature of petit feu faience enabled both greater precision in painting techniques and variety in the range of colors.
