Very Rare 18th C French Faience NIDERVILLER CHARGER Plate Plat Rococo Louis XV Beyerle Period

Pottery : Antique : Faience : French

 

A very rare Niderviller grand plat (large platter) in petit feu from the Beyerle period! The charger was created circa 1765 - 1770 (rococo period) at Niderviller in Lorraine, in eastern France. Most of the Niderviller faience from the Beyerle period is now in museums. The rarity (see below) of this grand plat should make it attractive to serious collectors of 18th century ceramics. The charger has been personally authenticated and dated by the leading French expert and museum catalogist for the 18th century faience of eastern France. Authenticity is absolutely guaranteed.

Diameter: c. 12 in. (30.5 cm.)

Baron Jean Louis de Beyerle founded the Niderviller faience factory in 1754. He and his friends made faience merely as an aristocratic hobby and spared no expense in their production. Output was relatively low: they focused primarily on quality. And, indeed, their faience is renowned for its superb quality. Examples from this period are rare to find and difficult for novice collectors to accurately identify. There were rarely any factory or artist marks on Niderviller production during the years of Baron de Beyerle's ownership. Later, the Niderviller faience factory was acquired by General the Comte de Custine in 1780, at which time a factory mark (usually with a coronet and the initials CC for the Count of Custine) was added to their work, and the production took on more of an industrial quality, with its attention to quantity and the bottom-line earnings of the business.

The difficult and expensive technique called “petit feu,” which first allowed for the use of pastel enamels on faience, such as those found on this piece, was discovered a bit earlier at nearby Strasbourg, by the Hannong factory there. Sometimes referred to as faience de l'est, such floral designs were the specialty of the eastern region of France and the Niderviller factory was one of the best. Workers coming to France from nearby Germany knew of the Deutsche Blumen floral decorations of Meissen porcelain and set about to create similar designs on faience.

The charger is in good condition with almost no signs of wear. As is very common on faience and other tin-glaze wares of this age (236-240 years), there is glaze fritting on the rim. This is a result of shrinkage of the clay over the centuries and is viewed as age-appropriate. There are some signs of old repairs, e.g., on the upper left rim of the plate, as shown in the images. Though most collectors choose to leave any rim fritting as testimony to the age of early faience, the rarity of this charger makes it a good candidate for a new, professional restoration, if desired. It would be quite simple and relatively inexpensive to have done and is certainly worth doing on such a rare example of early faience. PLEASE CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR LARGE PHOTOS.

Item ID: 0505-8