[Rarebooks] FS: Magnificent Book on Rouen Faience

[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 would have remained unpublished and we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.  [08055] 
$1,200.00

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