[Rarebooks] FS: Stunning 1870 Pottery Book in Custom Binding

[Joslin Hall Rare Books, ABAA]

Pottier, Andre.  HISTOIRE DE LA FAIENCE DE ROUEN.

Rouen Auguste le Brument: 1870.

Solon notes- "Few are the ceramic monographs which may rank on par with
Pottier's 'History of the Rouen Faience' it has never been excelled,
perhaps never been equaled, by any other work of the same order. A
masterly treatment, on the part of the historian, has rendered full
justice to an important chapter of the ceramic history".

Andre Pottier was the librarian of Rouen, which gave him the opportunity
to research the history of his city in great depth, and as the grandson of
a noted faience manufacturer, he gravitated toward the history of the
city's potters.

Solon continues- "While the finest productions of the departed [ceramic]
art were disregarded by all, he was able to form of them a considerable
and selected collection, such as it would have been impossible to form in
after times. As to the knowledge that Pottier had managed to acquire,
through his unremitting researches, of the conditions under which the
manufacturer of painted faience was carried on two hundred years before,
one might question whether any of the masters of the best period had ever
been so thoroughly acquainted with the subject."

"His thoughts were constantly busy with the preparation of the book that
was to be the 'magnum opus' of his life. Never satisfied with the
documents he had already accumulated, he went on gathering and sifting
fresh crops of materials towards the completion of his work. When death
surprised him, he was still uncertain whether the task he had undertaken
could be said to be at an end. In fact, were it not for the devotion that
his friends bore to his memory, his disordered mss. would have remained
unpublished and we should have been deprived of a monograph that no one
else could have written with such commanding authority."

"Pottier's own collection -which became the nucleus of the Rouen Ceramic
Museum- illustrated nearly all the periods of manufacture. Nevertheless,
far from confining his selection of representative examples to the objects
in his possession, he preferred to give us the cream of the numerous
collections that were placed at his disposal. His talented daughter was to
him an invaluable collaborator she reproduced in water colour all the more
remarkable examples, as they passed through their hands, and it was her
portfolio which supplied the excellent illustrations of the book".

Hardcover. 10"x12.5", xii + 420 + [iv] pages, plus 60 colored plates line
figures in the text ex-Boston Museum of Fine Arts library with several
small stamps, a bookplate, a perforation on the title page and a small
discoloration on the spine where a label was removed bound in a
magnificent custom binding, full parchment with hand-lettered titles and
decorations- a small coat of arms on the front cover, a floral emblem on
the spine and a polychromed jug on the rear cover. Binding with some soil,
several very small punctures on the spine contents with a little soil, a
little wear overall, but a very nice beautifully bound copy.  [8055] 
$1,200.00

Pictures-
<http://www.joslinhall.com/images08/th-08055.jpg>



JOSLIN HALL RARE BOOKS, ABAA
Fine books of the 16th-20th centuries
on the decorative and fine arts & design

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