1997.46.a-b, tureen, c. 1770, Marseille, France, faience

Marseilles, France was an important center of faience production in the 18th century, with as many as eleven separate factories working at the same time. Its busy port and local school of painters made it a site conducive to the production of decorative ceramics which were consumed both locally and abroad. The faience decorated in Marseilles after 1750 is delicate sometimes as elaborate as those produced by urban silversmiths. In this way, Marseilles wares were provincial in the best sense of the term: the inspirations were drawn from the changing tastes of the metropolitan court, but transformed into expressions of the local idiom. The result is a pleasing blend of style and beauty, exemplified by this tureen in the collection of the Dallas Museum of Art.

The overall shape of this tureen is typical of Marseilles tureens—low to the surface and long and ovoid. Its molded Rococo ornament is rustic in the representation of intertwined branches for the cover handle. The soft, muted colors of green and purple are adapted to the naturalistic scenes they embellish. These colors are often associated with the work of Honore Savy, who maintained his own very successful factory after 1764. He claimed to have invented the beautiful enamel green color, which was used as a wash over drawing in black as seen here.

Until 1997: Collection of David T. Owsley, New York, New York

1997: purchased at auction, "Important French and Continental Furniture and Ceramics," Christie's, New York, May 21, 1997, lot 37, as "A Marselles soup tureen and cover, circa 1770" [1]

From 1997: Dallas Museum of Art, gift of the above via the Alvin and Lucy Owsley Foundation in honor of Lucy Ball Owsley

[1] See check #5998 and Christie's invoice in Collections Records Object File 1997.46.a-b.

Apply to objects where number equals 1997.46.a-b