Object Description
19th century antique pallissy ware jar with frogs, snake and snail decoration on yellow glaze.
Palissy ware is a 19th-century term for ceramics produced in the style of the famous French potter Bernard Palissy (c. 1510–90), who referred to his own work in the familiar manner as rustique. Palissy’s distinctive style of polychrome lead-glazed earthenware in a sombre earth-toned palette, using naturalistic scenes of plants and animals cast from life,[1] was much imitated by other potters both in his own lifetime and especially in the 19th century, when pottery in Palissy’s style was produced by Charles-Jean Avisseau of Tours, who rediscovered Palissy’s techniques in 1843, his relatives the Landais family of Tours, Georges Pull of Paris, Maurice, and Barbizet.
This distinctive style of pottery is characterized by three-dimensional modeled, often aquatic, animals such as snakes, fish, lizards, frogs, and snails arranged onto large platters (wall plates, wall platters, chargers). Typically, each component is modeled and painted individually.
The name Palissy ware was also given by Minton & Co to their new range of polychrome lead-glazed pottery: “…what is now known as majolica was a range of brightly coloured low-temperature glazes launched in 1849 as ‘Palissy Ware’. Only later did these become known as majolica ware.”
Although we are dating this as 19th century it could well be a lot earlier, although statistically speaking unlikely to be one of the 15th century ones.
£1,700
11cm / 4½” wide
16cm / 6½” high