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Series of 2 earthenware plates from the Manufacture Bordeaux Vieillard *, by Amédée de Caranza **, decorated with two characters of fantastic or grotesque appearance fighting with swords against insects and butterfly, from the end of the 19th century.
These plates are in good condition. Signed on the bottom.
A note: some tiny defects in enameling, micro-scratches and wear of time, see photos.
Adopting the English process for its earthenware, Bordeaux ceramics took off in the 19th century. As production becomes industrial, it opens up to a wider audience without losing quality. David Johnston, having founded a pottery on the Quai du Bataclan, joined forces in 1840 with Jules Vieillard (1813-1868), a Parisian merchant. Successor six years later, the latter skillfully uses techniques specific to fine earthenware. Multiplying the decorations, Vieillard produces elegant ceramics that meet the taste of a bourgeois clientele. When he died in 1868, his two sons, Albert and Charles Vieillard, took over the factory, which then employed 1300 workers. At the beginning of the Third Republic, the earthenware of Bordeaux occupied the third rank in the importance of ceramic establishments, behind the factories of Sarreguemines and Creil-Montereau. In addition to a good Parisian distribution network, it also benefits from the export market, carried by ships loaded with fine wines leaving the port of Bordeaux. Vieillard earthenware, repeatedly crowned at world exhibitions, is distinguished by the delicacy of its execution as well as by the variety of its decorative motifs.
is a French ceramist and glassmaker. Caranza arrived at the J. Vieillard & Cie factory just before the Universal Exhibition of 1878, as workshop manager, that is to say responsible for production. He introduced the technique of cloisonne enamel and made many pieces with Japanese decor, blue decor. Other pieces are Turkish or Persian, sometimes decorated with Arabic inscriptions, and closely imitate Islamic ceramics. His departure from the Bacalan factory around 1886 was caused by a dispute between him and the Vieillard brothers over the use of gold powder. After which, the ceramist opens his own workshop where he devotes himself to enamelled glass, 145 cours Balguerie.
